Mumbai, April 22 : Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday urged the government to speed up the regulatory approval process for administering Covid-19 vaccine for children. Speaking at the Times Network’s India Economic Conclave, Poonawalla said the momentum of administering the Covid-19 booster doses should also be kept up as it was done during the peak of the pandemic. “I have always maintained that the momentum that we had seen in the private sector and the public sector in getting fast-track approvals, launching vaccines and completing trials, which was happening at record speeds during the pandemic. However, in the last three months, we have gone back to business as usual, where the urgency isn’t there. There are other priorities and so they are taking their time with approvals and that’s why we are seeing a lot of delays,” he noted. He noted that committees have not met on time to decide on matters of granting final approvals. “Our Covovax vaccine is being sold in Europe and Australia, but we can’t put it on our Cowin app right now in India because the government has to take its decision on how to implement the programme (for administering vaccine to children). We have received an approval from the regulator, but we cannot sell it and give it to the children in India,” Poonawalla added. The SII CEO also hoped that the government will soon take a decision on reducing the time gap for taking the booster dose from nine months to six months. “I have been getting queries for the booster dose because people want to travel. Also, it seems that after six months, the antibody levels go down. So there is a lot of scientific rationale for it. A lot of the experts in India have also agreed with that. And I think very soon the government will reduce the gap from nine to six months, which is the right decision going forward for boosters as well,” Poonawalla added. PSK SY 1504
