New Delhi [India], March 30 (ANI): The COVID-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory on Immunisation (NTAGI) will be reviewing the data of Serum Institute of India's vaccine -- Covovax for use for children and adults, on April 1, sources informed on Wednesday.

Pune Mar 27 PTI A study conducted by a team of Indian researchers has found that oral cancer patients having a lesser number of circulating tumour cells CTCs in blood live longer than patients with a greater number of such cellsThe four-year-long study among the largest clinical trials in head and neck cancers in which 500 patients were analysed was led by Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai Dr Jayant Khandare and a team of Pune-based Actorius OncoDiscover Technology Altogether 152 oral cancer patients were analysed and 15 ml blood per patient was monitored for the presence of CTCs Khandare told PTI The study showed that patients with over 20 CTCs per 15 ml blood are more likely to have an advanced-stage disease and nodal metastasis cancer cells breaking away from where they first formed while patients with less than 12 CTCs per 15 ml blood survive for a longer period he said The study was published in the international peer-reviewed Journal Triple OOO recently he added As per the national cancer registry there are about 14 lakh cancer patients in India and about nine per cent of these 12 lakh are in Maharashtra Khandare said Cancer cases and deaths in Maharashtra have increased by 11306 and 5727 respectively in last three years a collective increase of around eight per cent he added The OncoDiscover test funded by the government through Biotech Ignition Grant and Small Business Industry Research Initiative of the Department of Biotechnology is the sole CTC test approved by Drugs Controller General of India as per the Medical Device Rules 2017 he said The test is used to detect CTCs for diagnosis of cancers like those of head and neck breast lung colon and rectal Khandare said Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has evinced an interest in our work and will be visiting our Pune facility soon he added PTI VT VT VT

New Delhi [India], March 18 (ANI): Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has submitted the phase-II and phase-III trials data of India's first mRNA COVID vaccine to the regulator Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday, said sources.

New Delhi Nov 29 PTI The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has not mandated for COVID-19 vaccines to be administered mandatorily at this stage and all data relating to clinical trial approved by Drugs Controller General of India DCGI and vaccination data that is required to be and can be released as per law is already available in the public domainThe affidavit filed by Centre in the top court said that at this juncture the entire concentration of the Central and the State Governments should be and is on vaccination drive and encouraging people to get vaccinatedIt is therefore not desirable at this juncture to invest time finding out motives behind a few elements attempting to act against the interest of the nation at the cost of violating the right of crores of citizens to be protected from pandemic the government saidIt said that the decision regarding approval of COVID-19 vaccines has been taken by expert committees consisting of domain experts based on and after verifying datainformation supplied by the manufacturers and after considering its efficacy and safetyThe minutes of meetings and committee deliberations to the extent permissible are already in the public domain Decisions regarding approval of COVID-19 vaccines have been taken by expert committees consisting of domain experts based on and after verifying datainformation supplied by the manufacturers and after considering its efficacy and safety the government saidIt added that post-vaccination adverse data is already in the public domain and the concerned authorities are continuously monitoring and examining this data and The Central Government has not mandated for COVID-19 vaccines to be administered mandatorily at this stageThe government said that all data relating to clinical trials approval by DCGI and vaccination data that is required to be and can be released as per law is already available in the public domainThe Centre in its affidavit filed in a plea by Jacob Puliyel said that this petition is filed purportedly as a Public Interest Litigation and if entertained would harm the public interest Therefore it is submitted that approval to Covaxin and Covishield vaccines has been granted for restricted emergency use after following the procedure prescribed under Rules of 2019 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and after detailed deliberations among eminent scientific experts taking all precautions necessary considering the COVID-19 pandemic the government saidIt said that any misgivings and misconceived doubts and motivated propaganda against vaccination can only result in a potential threat of setting vaccine hesitancy again which will not be in the public interestOnce it is placed before this Court that -there is a statutory regime in place and the regime is followed--this Court may not undertake the exercise any further as it would enable the petitioner and handful of others like him to create serious misgivings and misconceived doubts against the vaccination in the process of this petition itselfThe government added that the year 2020 and 2021 witnessed one of the most severe tragedies engulfing not only India but the entire humankind threatening virtually the existence of the human raceIt has posed unprecedented challenges before the human race Every country started their own earnest efforts to deal with this pandemic called COVID-19 All human efforts throughout the world were concentrated towards tackling this pandemic and also attempting to prevent it it saidThe government said that the Petitioner is fully aware of the facts but has chosen to give a false picture before this court for the reasons best known to himIn the process however he has raised a false alarm and warning against efforts of the nation to combat an unprecedented tragedy faced by the human race Such an attempt is to be viewed very seriously at a time when the Central Government all State Governments and Union Territories are individually and collectively making all possible efforts to vaccinate every individual it saidThe Centre said that the court may therefore be pleased to dismiss this petition as not maintainable hit by principles of suppression of material facts and the subject matter being outside the scope of judicial review with exemplary costsIt said that applying the provisions of the Second Schedule the Central Licensing Authority that is Drugs Controller General CDSCO in detailed consultation and deliberation with the Subject Expert Committee SEC and after examining the efficacy of the vaccine and its effects granted permission for restricted emergency use of COVAXIN and COVISHIELD vaccines of Bharat Biotech International Ltd and Serum Institute of India Ltd respectively under the Accelerated Approval ProcessIt added there is also an established protocol for reporting and causality assessment for any Adverse Event Following Immunisation AEFI following vaccination with Universal Immunization Program UIP and Non-UIP vaccinesThe government said that for COVID-19 vaccination the same system of AEFI surveillance is being used and the surveillance system has been further strengthened for adult vaccination especially for a novel vaccine which has been given only Emergency Use Authorization EUA PTI MNL MNL RKS RKS

New Delhi [India], September 15 (ANI): The Drug Controller General of India has given its approval to the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine version of the Sputnik V vaccine 'Sputnik Light' to conduct trials on the Indian population to check whether the vaccine gives a similar immune response in trials similar to what it has shown on the Russian population.