India Clears 2 New Vaccines And Merck's Covid Pill

The two latest vaccines are Corbevax and Covovax. The anti-viral drug Molnupiravir can be used during emergency.

Corbevax is India's first homegrown "RBD protein sub-unit vaccine", It is made by the Hyderabad-based firm Biological-E.

"It's a hat-trick! It's now third vaccine developed in India,". The other two vaccines developed in India are Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and SII Covishield.

The nanoparticle vaccine, Covovax, will be manufactured by the Pune-based SII.

The anti-viral drug Molnupiravir will be manufactured in India by 13 companies for restricted use under emergency situation

Dr Reddy's Laboratories in a consortium with Cipla, Mylan, Torrent, Emcure and Sun Pharma had presented their proposal for approval of Molnupiravir for emergency situation.

In a clinical trial of high-risk people during the early course of illness, Merck's drug was shown to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by around 30 per cent.

Source: NDTV

India will start administering COVID-19 booster shots to healthcare, frontline workers and those above 60 with comorbidities from January 10.