Covishield likeliest to be India's guard against Covid: Know all about the Oxford vaccine 

The subject expert committee (SEC) of India's drug regulator on Friday gave its recommendation to the Oxford-AstraZeneca-Serum Institute 'Covishield' vaccine for emergency use. Post a final assent from the DCGI, this would pave the way for the vaccine's rollout in India which, after the United States, has the highest number of coronavirus infections in the world. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has reviewed the preparedness for the mega vaccination dry run that has got underway on Saturday. India has also allowed the import and export of Covid-19 vaccines without any value limitation.

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More than 50 million doses of the Covishield vaccine have already been stockpiled by its India manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII), and sources said the shots could start to be transported from cold storage to all states as early as Saturday. Large parts of the planning for the Oxford vaccine has been done well in advance, with Adar Poonawalla having taken a bet on the Oxford candidate months before it even went into clinical trials.

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Here's everything you need to know about the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine 

Efficacy: The Oxford-AstraZeneca-SII Covishield vaccine's efficacy in preventing symptomatic infections was 70.4 per cent as 30 of 5,807 people who got the two-dose vaccine developed COVID-19, compared with 101 of 5,829 people who got a placebo, in the clinical trials. 

For participants who received two full doses at least one month apart, vaccine efficacy was 62%, and in those who received a low dose followed by a full dose, efficacy was 90%.

Cost: Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla has said earlier that for the Government of India, the price of the vaccine will be about USD 3 per dose, so USD 6 [Rs 440] per person, but for the private market it will cost around Rs 700-800. 

Storage: The vaccine could be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures, between 2 and 8 degrees celsius. In comparison, the Moderna vaccine needs to be stored at -20 degree Celsius and the Pfizer/BioNTech product must be kept at -70 degree Celsius. 

Technology: The vaccine entails a version of a virus that usually infects chimpanzees and has been modified with a portion of the COVID-19 called the "spike protein" to fire the immune system. Once it enters the human cells, the vaccine would help stimulate the production of antibodies that recognize the virus.

Safety: According to The Lancet, a medical publication, Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine is safe and efficacious against symptomatic coronavirus disease. The safety was monitored for a median of 3.4 months in all 23,745 participants from the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Out of 23,745 participants, 168 experienced a total of 175 severe adverse events over the period, but 172 events were unrelated to the COVID-19 or control vaccines.

Doses: The world's biggest producer of vaccines (Serum Institute of India), has already stockpiled about 50 million doses, enough for 25 million people. 

Approval in UK: On December 30, The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was authorized for emergency use in the United Kingdom (UK). It has been given the go-ahead by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It is the second vaccine to be approved in the UK after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was given the go-ahead in December. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be rolled from January 4 across Britain.

SII had applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for EUA for Oxford COVID-19 vaccine on December 6, while the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had sought the nod for its indigenously developed Covaxin on December 7.

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(With Agency Inputs)