With the approval of Corbevax as a booster dose, India will have a heterologous shot
- June 6, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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With the approval of Corbevax as a booster dose, India will have a heterologous shot
- The Indian drug regulator has given greenlight to Corbevax as a booster dose for all adults above 18 years who have received two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin as part of primary vaccination, a heterologous booster shot has come a step closer to being administered to people.
- The vaccine was developed by Hyderabad-based Biological E. Limited (BE)’s.
- Though booster shots have been administered since January 10 beginning with health care and frontline workers, and people over 60 with comorbidities, India has been using the same vaccine for both primary vaccination and booster (homologous boosting).
- In clinical trials, a booster dose using a vaccine that is different from the one used for primary vaccination — technically called heterologous boosting — produced higher immune responses when compared with a same vaccine for primary and booster vaccination.
- However, the trial has thus only shown that Corbevax as a heterologous booster increases the immune responses but failed to show that heterologous boosting with this vaccine produces superior immune responses than homologous boosting with Covishield or Covaxin.