New Delhi: At a time when states across India have been complaining of vaccine shortage, India's drug regulator, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has received applications of four more Covid-19 vaccines for restricted use in an emergency. An official in the Health Ministry said that the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under DCGI has been examining the approval process of four vaccine manufacturers.
The CDSCO has been examining the emergency use authorisation process for novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV vaccine of Cadila Healthcare Limited, SARS-CoV-2 protein (Covid-19) recombinant spike protein nanoparticle vaccine of Serum Institute of India, Gam-Covid-Vac combined vector vaccine (SputnikV) manufactured by Hetero and Sputnik light vector vaccine of Dr Reddy's Laboratories.
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Till date, the drug regulator has approved Covishield, Covaxin, SputnikV and Moderna. Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar also told in the Parliament recently that her government has taken several steps for fast track approval of Covid-19 vaccines.
"A system is in place for fast track processing of the application for clinical trial and approval for Covid-19 vaccines by CDSCO. To facilitate the development of vaccines, manufacturing site inspections were conducted during the clinical batches development phase instead of initial development," said Dr Pawar.
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The Centre has placed an order for the supply of 100.6 crore Covid doses up to December this year. "A total of Rs 8071.09 crore have been spent on the purchase of Covid vaccines out of budget outlay of Rs 35,000 crore as on July," Dr Pawar said. She informed that till July 20, a total of 42.51 crore doses have been supplied to states and UTs through all sources of which 40.36 crore doses have been utilised during the ongoing vaccination drive.
Meanwhile, Dr Pawar said that a total of 921 doctors and healthcare workers have been paid insurance claims of Rs 50 lakh each under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP): Insurance Scheme for Healthcare Workers Fighting Covid-19. The scheme providers a comprehensive personnel accident cover of Rs 50 lakh to health care providers, including community health workers and private health care workers for Covid-19 related responsibilities and who may be in direct contact and care of Covid-19 patients and who may be at risk of being infected by it.
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