MUMBAI: Pune based vaccine producer Serum Institute of India (SII), which is already manufacturing millions of doses of Covishield vaccine in technical collaboration with Oxford University and AstraZeneca has applied to start clinical trials of 'COVOVAX' a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax.

Making the announcement in a tweet SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla said that his company's partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with Novavax has also published excellent efficacy results. "We have also applied to start trials in India. Hope to launch COVOVAX by June 2021!" he tweeted.

The US based Novavax had made a announcement on Thursday,  that its vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate against COVID-19 demonstrated 89.3% efficacy in United Kingdom, phase 3 Trial. Although it said that the efficacy dropped to 60% when it was tested in volunteers in South Africa, a likely consequence of a mutant coronavirus variant that is now deep-rooted there.

Once the proposals for vaccine trails are submitted to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), it is referred to the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) review the application and evaluate it thoroughly by the expert panel which may ask for the protocols and relevant data for further analysis.

NVX-CoV2373 contains a full-length, prefusion spike protein made using Novavax recombinant nanoparticle technology and the company's proprietary saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant.

The purified protein is encoded by the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and is produced in insect cells. It can neither cause COVID-19 nor can it replicate, is stable at 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius (refrigerated) and is shipped in a ready-to-use liquid formulation that permits distribution using existing vaccine supply chain channels.

SII has already received restricted emergency use approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), for its Covishield vaccine and when approved COVOVAX will be second vaccine from the company.