Serum Institute of India's Adar Poonawalla says Covid vaccine for kids to be launched in 6 months

Serum Institute of India's Adar Poonawalla has provided Indians with its first Covid-19 vaccine named Covishield. Now, the SII is gearing up to launch a vaccine for kids in India. Yes, you heard that right. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla revealed on Tuesday that the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine for children will be launched within six months in the country.

Novavax Covid-19 vaccine

Speaking at a virtual conference, Adar Poonawalla revealed that the Novovax shot is currently under trial and shown good results.

"Our vaccine will be launched in six months. It is under trial and has shown excellent data all the way down to the age group of 3," Adar said at the conference. The Novovax has also already been imported to countries like Indonesia.

Apart from that, the SII has also halved the production of AstraReutersZeneca vaccine due to weak demand. The production was at an-all time high. Elaborating on this, Aadar said that the current global vaccine supply has outmatched the demand. It is far bigger than what many countries could consume despite only a fraction of the population being vaccinated. He cited infrastructure shortages as one of the key reasons to lesser innoculation numbers.

"Globally, including in India, the supply has outmatched the demand. Certain countries have only vaccinated to the tune of 10% or 15% of the population, they really need to go to 60-70%," Adao Poonawalla said, as per Reuters.