Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute's COVID-19 Vaccines 'Not Cleared' For Emergency Use? Health Ministry Denies, Calls Media Reports 'Fake'

New Delhi, December 9: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a statement to deny the reports that claimed that two of the leading vaccine candidates were "not cleared" for emergency use by the drug regulatory body. The clarification came shortly after a couple of media outlets claimed that the vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech were not granted immediate clearance.

"The media report about the rejection of Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech's emergency use authorisation of vaccine is fake," the Health Ministry said in a statement, after taking cognisance of the media reports. UK: 2 Workers Show Allergic Reactions After Receiving Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine, MHRA Issues Warning.

Update by ANI

News 18 and NDTV were among the leading media outlets who reported the immediate clearance for emergency usage was not granted by Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

The CDSCO had met today to review the applications submitted by the US-based Pfizer Inc, Pune's Serum Institute of India and the Hyderabad-headquartered Bharat Biotech. The three developers had applied for approval over the past five days.

While Bharat Biotech is producing Covaxin, a domestically developed vaccine candidate, the Serum Institute is the India-partner of Oxford University and Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. The Cyrus Poonawalla-led firm is in-charge of producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 09, 2020 06:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).