IMA hails market approval of Covaxin and Covishield, describing it as 'welcome step'

A day after a government panel has recommended market approval for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India (SII's) Covishield, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday hailed the move and said that it will expedite India's mammoth vaccination drive and protect the people from the pandemic.

New Delhi: A day after a government panel has recommended market approval for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India (SII's) Covishield, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday hailed the move and said that it will expedite India's mammoth vaccination drive and protect the people from the pandemic.

"This is a welcome step. With this recommendation, people can now easily purchase the vaccine whenever they want and get vaccinated," said IMA president Dr Sahajanand Singh to ETV Bharat.

The subject expert committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Wednesday recommended the upgrade of Covaxin and Covishield status from restricted use in an emergency situation to grant new drug permission with conditions in the adult population.

Following the SEC recommendation, DCGI will now examine the matter for giving the final approval.

"Once DCGI gives its final nod, both the Indian vaccines will be easily available in the market," said Dr Singh.

Both the vaccines are found effective against the Covid19 virus, he said.

When asked whether this will develop the scenario where people are fond of taking overdose or misuse of the vaccine, Dr Singh ruled out such possibility and said that there are no side effects of the vaccines.

"It's not mandatory that people should take vaccines after completing the time duration. People can take the vaccines before time also," said Dr Singh.

Echoing the same view, IMA finance secretary Dr Anil Goyal said that the decision will also encourage the people to take their additional (precautionary) dose.

"Both the vaccines are good and their proper use will give more immunity to a human body to fight against the Covid19 pandemic," said Dr Goyal.

When asked whether the market approval of the vaccines may bring any change in rules for booster dose, Dr Goyal said, "It's up to the central government whether they want any changes in the rules or not."

Significantly, once the vaccines are available in the market, people can easily purchase them for their usage.

At present, a precautionary third dose is given to frontline healthcare workers as well as security force personnel.

It may be mentioned here that both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India had urged the government to give market approval to Covishield asserting that over a billion doses of its vaccine have been given across the world.

"The market approval of the vaccines means that they will now be available for all those in need of this," said Dr Goyal.

As per health ministry statistics, a total of 1,60,03,33,779 vaccine doses have been administered to date in India including 63,92,578 precaution doses.