Corbevax vaccine and antiviral drug Molnupiravir

Corbevax vaccine and antiviral drug Molnupiravir

Part of: Prelims and GS-II Health

Context India has approved two more COVID-19 vaccines and the antiviral drug Molnupiravir under emergency use authorisation.

• Currently, India uses Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V for vaccination

Key takeaways 

• Vaccines recently approved in India are:
  • Corbevax, to be made by Hyderabad-based Biological E, is a protein subunit vaccine.
  • Covovax, to be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Pune, is a nanoparticle-based vaccine.
• Covovax has been approved by the WHO under its Emergency Use Listing. It will be available globally as part of the COVAX initiative to ensure that at least 40% of world is vaccinated on priority.
• Molnupiravir is said to be a promising drug for those with mild and moderate disease and also easily administered as a pill.
• It has been approved under emergency use authorisation for treating adults with COVID-19 “who have high risk of progression to disease”.
• Paxlovid is yet to be approved in India.
• There are no studies so far to show how effective the new vaccines will be in giving protection against symptomatic infection when employed as a third dose.