Government should not waste time’: India’s top Genomics scientist recommends `Covovax’ booster dose to counter Omicron

Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) director Anurag Agrawal has recommended `Covovax’ as a booster shot to counter the threat of Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Covovax is the Indian version of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc and manufactured under licence by the Serum Institute of India (SII). It is a recombinant protein vaccine that uses spike proteins to teach the body how to develop immunity against the novel coronavirus.

Anurag Agrawal said Covovax has greater efficacy as a booster dose than Covishield. He did, however, clarify that further clinical studies are required on how much resistance Novovax provides against the Omicron variant.

 “I do not think that the approved version, based on ancestral spike protein, will be directly very effective against Omicron since its efficacy against Beta was around 50 percent (much better than AZ though). It is however better than a third dose AstraZeneca/Covishield as a booster,” he said.

Comparing Covovax’s immune-response against data from COV-Boost’s vaccine trial, Anurag Agrawal said, “The immune boost, after two doses of AZ/Covishield, was far better for this than inactivated virus vaccine in COV-BOOST. Also, rapid modification of protein is possible for variant-specific immune response.”

He added that the WHO approval was good news for India and that the government shouldn’t waste much time in rolling out Covovax as a booster dose.

Novavax vaccine, as Covovax is known outside India, demonstrated 90.4 percent efficacy in a clinical trial involving 29,960 people in South Africa. The efficacy is on par with rival candidates from Pfizer and Moderna. It showed an efficacy of 100 percent at preventing moderate or severe disease, the New York Times reported.

 Phase III trials were launched in the United Kingdom in September 2020, where they reached an efficacy of 96 percent against the original coronavirus variant. The company is also developing a vaccine against new variants of Covid-19.