The Covid-19 working group has recommended to the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) that pregnant and lactating women receive the newly approved Corbevax vaccine. The immunisation campaign for Biological E's Corbevax has yet to begin.
The company began producing the vaccine in December and expects to deliver 50 million doses to the government this month.
"The available data on vaccine safety in pregnancy from development and reproductive toxicity (DART) studies of Corbevax vaccine are reassuring," a government official who did not want to be identified stated.
The recommendation will be discussed at the NTAGI's next meeting.
In India, there is a higher level of apprehension about getting the Covid-19 immunisation among expectant moms. "In India we have seen that pregnant women haven't accepted the vaccine," said the official, adding that pregnant women form the highest number of the unvaccinated population in the country.
Since the immunisation effort began, some four million pregnant women have received the Covid vaccine, which is a small number considering there are an estimated 30 million of them in the country at any given time.
Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Dynavax Technologies in Emeryville, California, created Corbevax, a protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine. For development and production, it has been licenced to Biological E. Limited (BioE), an Indian biopharmaceutical company.
