The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced that children born in the years 2008, 2009, and 2010 will now receive their COVID-19 shots from March 16. Earlier this year, those above 14 years of age started receiving their COVID-19 shots.
While the teenagers were administered Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, the new age group will be vaccinated with Hyderabad's Biological E's Corbevax. Biological E is producing this patent free vaccine in collaboration with scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
The vaccine is produced differently than the vaccines currently in use across the world. All the vaccines either use adenoviral vectors, inactivated SARS-CoV-2 or mRNA platforms to grow the vaccine. Corbevax uses recombinant protein technology to produce the vaccine. Recombinant proteins are those where specific proteins are allowed to replicate without the help of an original replicating RNA or DNA and allowed to express their role on their own. In this case, the spike protein was produced without any infectious components of the existing virus.
This Corbevax vaccine uses an already established technology platform to release the protein sub-unit. The SARS-CoV-2 protein is released by a yeast which is how Hepatitis B vaccines are created as well. While Hep B vaccines use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the host and medium for recombination, the COVID-19 vaccine uses another yeast called Pichia pastoris wherein the spike protein will replicate.
The scientists Peter Hotez and Maria Bottezi who developed the vaccine believe that this vaccine could act as perfect booster dose vaccine to curb the spread of the ongoing Omicron variant. To ensure equitable access to everybody, they have decided to not issue a patent on the production technology of the vaccine.
The Indian government has reportedly placed an order of 300 million doses. This vaccine will only be available for the specific age group of those between 12-14. It cannot be used as a booster/ precaution dose.
The Ministry also shared that it is removing its earlier mandate for those above 60 who want to take a precautionary booster dose. Those above 60 were earlier required to present a certificate bearing a doctor's signature that showed that they suffered from pre-existing comorbidities. As this rule is now removed, every citizen in this age group can now go ahead and take the booster shot. They cannot mix vaccines and will have to take the same shot as their first two shots (Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik).