India's Covid vaccine hope rolls over to 2021; panel to meet again on Jan 1

Sources close to the development said the expert committee sought more information from Serum Institute regarding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

Soon after the UK drug regulator approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday, Indian authorities got into action to consider the applications from key players like Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech for emergency use authorisation. Serum Institute is in a tie-up with Oxford-AstraZeneca to manufacture vaccine against Covid-19.

However, following hours of data analysis, the Subject Expert Committee in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) decided to meet again on January 1 for further analysis of the additional information supplied by Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech. A statement issued by the Union Health Ministry confirmed that a meeting of