Serum Institute Of India has applied to the country’s drug regulator and the health ministry for full market authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, the company’s chief executive said in a tweet on Friday.
Serum Institute produces AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine under the brand name Covishield.
“The government of India now has enough data for full market authorisation, and therefore Serum Institute of India has applied to the drug regulator and the ministry of health for this permission,” Adar Poonawalla, SII’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) tweeted.
Covishield has been one of the main vaccines used in India for Covid-19. Around 90% people in India have got Covishield.
If the regular marketing authorisation is granted, Covishield will become the second Covid vaccine in the world to receive such an approval after Pfizer-BioNTech’s got a nod in the US.
SII had earlier also sought regular marketing approval in October after it supplied 100 crore doses in India and many other countries.
Emergency use approval to Covishield was granted on January 3, the vaccine playing a crucial role in pandemic control and becoming the mainstay of India’s Covid inoculation drive.
