Production of ‘Covovax’ COVID-19 vaccine has begun, informs SII CEO Adar Poonawalla

Mrunal Jadhav

Pune, June 25, 2021: The Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed that it has begun the production of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine ‘Covovax’ this week.

“This week, we have started making the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine prepared by Novavax, which has been renamed Covovax in India,” the pharmaceutical company said in a statement.

SII CEO Adar Poonawalla informed about the development on Twitter. “Excited to see the first batch of Covovax being manufactured this week (developed by Novavax) at our facility in Pune,” Poonawalla tweeted. The vaccine has the potential to protect people below the age of 18 years.

The Serum Institute of India is working to launch Covovax by September this year. An agreement was signed between US-based vaccine company Novavax Inc and Serum Institute of India (SII) regarding the license of the vaccine in August last year. Novavax Inc entered into the agreement for the development and commercialization of its COVID-19 vaccine ‘candidate NVX-COV2373’. The vaccine will be available to India and low and middle-income countries.