Biological E. Limited (BE), India's Hyderabad-based vaccines and pharmaceutical company, has announced that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has granted an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to their Corbevax vaccine.

It is India's first indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine that is based on protein sub-unit platform.

"The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) already approved  Corbevax for restricted use in emergency among adults, adolescents and young children in a sequential manner from December’21 to April’22; as well as India’s first heterologous COVID-19 booster shot for adults age 18 and above in June’22," the company said in a statement.

BE supplied 100 Million Doses of CORBEVAX  to the Government of India which were then utilized in pan-India immunization campaigns; mainly in 12-14-year-old children.

Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E. Limited, said "We are pleased with the WHO EUL because it would help us to use the platform to continue developing COVID-19 vaccines as and when it starts impacting public health. We are confident that this endorsement from WHO will bolster our global fight against COVID-19."

She further added, “We understand that several countries come under a lot of fiscal pressure when it comes to dealing with COVID-19. We aim to reach the people in those countries with CORBEVAX  , just as we have done with all our other vaccines. Our committment is to provide affordable and accessible vaccines that are of high quality and the WHO EUL lays a path for us to make that possible.”

Mahima said, “While several companies which entered the field of vaccine development & manufacturing during the COVID-19 pandemic exited soon afterwards either due to paucity of funds or lack of success, BE continues to remain committed to develop and provide access to high quality affordable vaccines globally by constantly enlarging its portfolio of offerings.’’

BE and next-generation COVID-19 vaccine

BE said it has been working on a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine that is based on the XBB1.5 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which would conform to WHO TAG-CO-VAC recommendations.

BE's candidate vaccine has completed all required pre-clinical animal studies, which suggests that it will provide adequate protection against the currently circulating variants.

BE has recently received final approval from CDSCO to begin clinical trials of the XBB.1.5 variant vaccine in India.

The clinical trials will commence soon at various trial sites in India.

The Corbevax  vaccine is administered through intramuscular route with two doses scheduled 28 days apart and is stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius temperature and presented as 0.5 ml (single dose) vial, 5 ml (10 doses) vial and 10 mL (20 doses) vial pack.