NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Even as India logged 36,571 new cases on Friday, the lowest in last 150 days, an expert panel of India’s central drug authority has recommended granting Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to Zydus Cadila’s three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, sources said.
The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) deliberated on the application given by Zydus Cadila on Thursday and recommended granting emergency use authorisation to its three-dose coronavirus vaccine.
The recommendations have been sent to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for final approval, official sources said.
The US-based pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on Friday said it has submitted an application to the Indian drug regulator to conduct a study of its COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents aged 12-17 years.
The company noted that it was committed to facilitating global equitable access to its COVID-19 vaccine and recognise the unmet needs of children.
“On August 17, 2021, we submitted an application to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to conduct a study of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in India in adolescents aged 12-17 years,” a J&J India spokesperson said in a statement.
“To ultimately achieve herd immunity, it is imperative that COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials continue to move forward in this population,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, with Friday’s new cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country went up to 3,23,58,829, while the national recovery rate improved to 97.54%, the highest since March 2020, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
A reduction of 524 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
(Manas Dasgupta)