Corbevex emergency use approval by India will help poor countries: Expert

New Delhi: Amid rising cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across the world, top American scientist and paediatrician Peter Hotez on Friday (December 31) said that the emergency authorization of the Corbevex vaccine by India will help most countries in the African continent.

While talking to ANI, Professor Hortez said, “Given the urgency, Corbevax will be helpful not only for India but globally as most of the African continent, neighbouring countries around India remain largely unvaccinated.”.

Talking about India’s approval to Corbevex, Professor Hortez said, “Emergency Use Authorisation of Corbevax in India for adults 18 and older will have a great pediatric profile because parents have been giving same technology (as in vaccine) to their kids for decades adding that the vaccine may later serve as a booster does in the country.

Calling the vaccine an ideal profile especially with the countries with the least drug availability, Hortez said discussions with WHO was started to make this vaccine available across the globe.

“We have started discussions with WHO to make this vaccine as widely available as possible, especially to people who live in poverty. It's easy to scale, has a great record of safety, simple refrigeration...It has an ideal profile,” he added.

For the unversed, India on Tuesday gave Emergency Use Authorisation to Corbevex, a protein-sub unit vaccine against COVID-19, like the mRNA and viral vector Covid-19 vaccines, targets only the spike protein, but in a different way.

The vaccine has been developed by an Indian Pharma firm Biological E. Limited in collaboration with the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development (Texas Children’s CVD) and Baylor College of Medicine (Baylor) in Houston.