No recommendations for COVID-19 booster dose by SEC: Sources – Deccan Chronicle

New Delhi: The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) under Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has said COVID-19 that booster doses cannot be recommended without clinical trials. The SEC was reviewing the application of the Serum Institute of India (SII) for the booster dose in a meeting that took place on Friday. The panel has sought additional data from the SII and would be doing another meeting. Amid the emergence of the new COVID variant Omicron, the SII had sought approval to administer the booster dose of its Covishield vaccine on the basis of adequate stock of the jab and rising demand for the booster shots. Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, had at the time cited that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has already approved the booster dose of AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. “People of our country, as well as citizens of other countries who have already been fully vaccinated with two doses of Covishield, are also continuously requesting our firm for booster dose,” Singh had stated in an application submitted before the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). Many experts have also recommended a booster dose in India especially after the emergence…
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