Covaxin approved for emergency use in children aged 2 years and above

The Subject Expert Committee on Covid-19 has granted emergency use approval to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children in the 2-18 years age group, news agency ANI tweeted.

“Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has given a recommendation to DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) for the use of BharatBiotech's Covaxin for 2-18-year-olds: Official source,”ANI tweeted.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 years of age in September and submitted the trial data to the Drugs and Comptroller General of India (DCGI) at the start of this month.

As India's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive is underway, an AIIMS professor has claimed that the latest trials show that the safety and immunogenicity of India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine--Covaxin--are almost the same in children, as adults above 18-years of age.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Sanjay K Rai, a professor at Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said, "Covaxin's trial was done on three age groups. The first group examined was between 12 -18 years, the second group was between 6- 12 years and the third age group was between 2-6 years."