India approves Merck’s Covid pill, 2 more vaccines for restricted emergency use

India has given approval to two more vaccines and one antiviral drug of Merck to bolster its battle against Covid-19, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said today.

"Further strengthening the fight against Covid-19, CDSCO, health ministry has given 3 approvals in a single day for: Corbevax vaccine, Covovax vaccine, anti-viral drug Molnupiravir for restricted use in emergency situation," Mandaviya said in a Twitter post, reports our New Delhi correspondent.  

With the latest approvals, altogether eight Covid-19 vaccines have so far received emergency use authorisation nod from India's drug regulator. They are: Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCoV-D, Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Corbevax and Covovax.

The clearance given to the two additional jabs came a day after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) recommended granting emergency use authorisation for the above two vaccines and one anti-viral drug.

Corbevax is India's first homegrown "RBD protein sub-unit vaccine", said Mandaviya. It is made by the Hyderabad-based firm Biological-E.

Covovax vaccine will be manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

Anti-viral drug Molnupiravir will be manufactured in India by 13 companies for restricted use under emergency situation to treat adult patients of Covid-19 who are at high risk of the infection progressing, the Health Minister said.

India reported 6,358 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours and the number of Omicron cases shot up to 653 across the country with 186 of them being recorded since Monday till this morning.