The Serum Institute of India has sent doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Indonesia, in its first export of the Novavax shot through the global Covax network, the Indian government said on Wednesday.
The world’s biggest vaccine maker exported 137,500 doses of Covovax, as it calls the shot, to the Southeast Asian country last week.
Indonesia, like the Philippines, has approved the vaccine but India and the World Health Organization, which co-leads the Covax vaccine-sharing network, have not.
Last week, the US-based Novavax said it had submitted an application for interim authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine to the Singapore Health Sciences Authority. It has also sought approval in South Korea, New Zealand and other Asia-Pacific countries.
“Each additional market submission marks further progress in delivering our vaccine to the world, which we believe may help address major obstacles to global vaccination, including global distribution challenges and vaccine hesitancy,” Stanley Erck, Novavax chief executive, said in a statement.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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