Covaxin
Zimbabwe authorises Sputnik V, Sinovac vaccines for emergency use
Zimbabwe has authorised the emergency use of four Covid-19 vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinovac, the minister of information said on Tuesday. The southern African nation last month rolled out its Covid-19 vaccination programme after receiving a donation of 200 000 doses of shots from China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). Last week, India announced that Zimbabwe had become the first African country to authorise the use of its Covaxin vaccine. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe has authorised the use of Sinopharm and Sinovac shots from China, Russia’s Sputnik V and India’s Covaxin, the information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said in a post-Cabinet briefing. “All Covid-19 approved vaccines will be procured through the National Vaccine Procurement Fund ...
India’s Serum Institute seeks approval for COVID-19 vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume, has sought government approval for emergency-use authorisation of the coronavirus vaccine that it has developed in partnership with the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca. “As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD,” the company CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Monday. The experimental vaccine can be stored at two to eight degrees Celsius and can be distributed more easily in India, which has the world’s second-highest number of infections at 9.6 million. The company has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), with Poonawalla saying the vaccine will “save countless lives” witho...
