Corona vaccination / Novovax vaccine approved for emergency use in India, adolescents of 12 to 18 years will get this vaccine

Novovax and Serum Institute of India on Tuesday announced the approval for the first emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12-18 years in India.

According to an official statement released by Novovax, the vaccine is also known as NVX-CoV2373. In India, it is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India under the name 'Kovovax'. This is the first protein-based vaccine that has been authorized for use in this age group in India.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has banned the emergency use of 'Kovovax' for active immunization to prevent the COVID-19 disease caused by coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in persons aged 12 years and above. use is permitted.

Stanley C. Erck, President and CEO of Novavax, said, “We are proud to have received the first approval for this vaccine for adolescents. Our data shows the efficacy and safety of this vaccine in India 12 and older. will provide an alternative protein-based vaccine option for older individuals."

Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India, said, “The approval of Kovovax for adolescents aged 12 years and above in India goes towards strengthening our immunization efforts in India and Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Another important milestone." "We are proud to offer a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine with a favorable safety profile to the adolescents of our country," he said.

The DCGI had already approved the emergency use of 'Kovovax' for adults aged 18 years and above on December 28. The name 'Kovovax' is also included in the list of emergency use released by the World Health Organization.

How does this vaccine work?

Novovax is a protein subunit vaccine and is therefore different from the mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna and Pfizer, the viral-vector vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, and the inactivated-virus vaccine made by Sinovac and Sinopharm. The protein subunit is an important part of vaccines that they protect against. In such a situation, to protect against the corona virus, they contain spike proteins that cover the surface of the virus, which the immune system can easily recognize.

When a real virus is encountered in the future, the immune system has defenses that are trained to attack these external parts of the virus and destroy it quickly. Wherein spike proteins are incapable of causing harmless, covid infections by themselves. These are intricately formed within insect cells. The protein is then purified and added to an adjuvant component that enhances the immune response.