The expert committee of the Central Drug Authority on Monday recommended the use of Biological-E company's Corona vaccine 'Corbevax' for children between the ages of 12 and 18 with certain conditions. However, the government has not yet decided to vaccinate children under the age of 15, it said. Policy Commission member VK Paul told in a recent news conference that there was an additional need for vaccinations and that the inclusion of more population was being reviewed on a regular basis. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had earlier on December 28 approved Corbevax in a limited form in case of emergency. This is an indigenously developed RBD based vaccine against Covid-19. However, the vaccine has not been included in the country's vaccination campaign.
Sources said the CDSCO's expert committee on Covid-19 discussed the application and recommended the use of Biological-E's Corbevax vaccine for children under 12 to 18 years of age with certain conditions of emergency use. This recommendation has been forwarded to DCGI for final approval. Notably, in an application sent to DCGI on February 9, Srinivas Kosaraju, head of biological-regulatory and regulatory affairs, said the company was only allowed to conduct Phase II-III clinical trials of Corbevax in the age group of 5-18 years in September last year. The Corbevax vaccine will be injected intramuscularly and two doses will be taken within 28 days. The vaccine is stored at a temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius.