COVOVAX

Subject : Science & tech

Context : Serum Institute’s second COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covavax’ likely to be launched in September.

Concept :

Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest Covid-19 vaccine maker, is hopeful to launch Covovax by September this year, CEO Adar Poonawalla announced on Saturday.
In August 2020, the two companies announced an agreement under which Novavax had given SII the licence to manufacture and supply the vaccine in low- and middle-income countries.

About Covovax

Covovax is the protein-based Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax, headquartered in the US.
NVX-CoV2373 is a vaccine candidate engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease.
It was created using Novavax’ recombinant nanoparticle technology to generate antigen derived from the coronavirus spike (S) protein and contains Novavax’ patented saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies
Serum Institute of India, will be making 1 billion doses of the shot for domestic supply and export under its brand Covovax.