Drug Controller General of India has approved two more Covid-19 vaccines – Corbevax, Covovax- and oral antiviral drug molnupiravir for emergency use in the country.  

Corbevax is a protein subunit vaccine developed by Indian pharmaceutical company Biological E (BioE), and Baylor College of Medicine and Dynavax Technologies from the US. Though the Hyderabad-based company hasn’t yet announced the timeframe by when it will be able to deliver the promised volume of doses and the prices, it said that the production capacity has been ramped up to touch 100 million doses by February. Covovax (NVX-CoV2373) is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from US vaccine firm Novavax. This is developed using a novel platform by creating an engineered baculovirus containing a gene for a modified SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

Molnupiravir, developed by US-drugmaker MSD, was awaiting DCGI approval for the last couple of months. Several companies, including Indian generic drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, will be launching this pill soon in the domestic market.