'India approves 2 more vaccines, 1 pill to fight against Covid-19

India has approved two more vaccines under emergency use authorization and an antiviral drug, Molnupiravir, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Twitter. Currently, India uses Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V in its vaccination programme.
Corbevax to be made by Hyderabad-based Biological-E is a protein sub-unit vaccine and Covovax, to be manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune, is a nanoparticle-based vaccine. Corbevax is co-developed by Biological E, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, United States, and American company Dynavax Technologies.
Covovax is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax, a U.S.-based biotechnology company. Covovax has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under its Emergency Use Listing and, therefore, will also be available globally as part of the COVAX initiative to ensure that at least 40% of world is vaccinated on priority.
Molnupiravir, that was approved this month by the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (U.S. FDA), on the heels of Paxlovid by Pfizer Inc, is said to be a promising drug for those with mild and moderate disease and also easily administered as a pill. Thirteen companies in India are set to manufacture this drug. It has been approved under emergency use authorisation for treating adults with Covid-19 “who have high risk of progression to disease”.
The U.S. FDA in a recent statement said that because Molnupiravir works by introducing genetic errors into the virus, it ought to be prescribed with caution and was not recommended as a preventive and only in “certain adults” in whom alternative Covid-19 treatment options authorised by the FDA were not accessible or clinically appropriate. 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 though the WHO's general observation is that same or mixed vaccine regimens “improve immunological response” are better protective against disease and death.