The Subject Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization has recommended the grant of permission to Biological E. Limited to manufacture 14-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine for infants.
Meanwhile, in another development, the European Union’s drug regulator is on Thursday expected to authorise the first Covid-19 vaccines for the Omicron variant, although they do not target the latest strains, as per AFP report. The adapted vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna will be discussed during an extraordinary meeting of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), while European nations have been keen to rush through the new generation of jabs so they can start booster campaigns ahead of a feared Covid surge this winter, the report said.
Additionally, the two so-called “bivalent” vaccines protect against the earlier BA.1 strain of Omicron, as well as the original Covid virus that emerged in China in 2019 and they do not however target the newer and more infectious BA.4 and BA.5 types, which have emerged in recent months as the dominant strains worldwide, the report said.
“The aim of the meeting is to conclude the evaluation of the two applications, if possible,” the Amsterdam-based EMA said, noting, “we will communicate on the outcomes of the meeting on 1 September.” The agency has said it hopes to approve a separate Pfizer vaccine adapted for the BA.4 and BA.5 types “in the fall,” as per the AFP report. Notably, the United States authorised its first anti-Omicron vaccines on Wednesday, approving Pfizer and Moderna jabs that were adapted to tackle BA.4 and BA.5, while Britain authorised the Moderna vaccine for the BA.1 type in mid-August, the report said.
Interestingly, the 27-nation EU is currently still using the same coronavirus vaccines that were approved nearly two years ago for use against the original strain, while they offer some protection against newer variants, the race has been on to produce jabs that also target the milder but more infectious Omicron strains, the AFP report noted.
It is worth noting that while previous “variants of concern” like Alpha and Delta eventually petered out, Omicron and its sublineages have dominated throughout 2022, the report said.
(With inputs from AFP)
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