India’s Biological E Ltd has begun production of an inexpensive COVID-19 vaccine, Corevax, developed by Texas researchers and longtime colleagues, Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Battazzi, longtime collaborators in vaccine research. Production estimates are at 100 million doses per month. Hotez announced that the technology is available to countries to use and manufacture on their own. He calls the vaccine “low cost, durable, easy-breezy.”
Hotez and Battazzi had developed a similar vaccine in 2003, based upon the technology of the hepatitis B vaccine, for SARS - but the epidemic had receded before their vaccine could be used. In 2020, there wasn’t sufficient federal government interest in their old-fashioned vaccine, one based upon a protein subunit, so they recruited Texas-based philanthropists. The vaccine would be available for around $1.50 per dose. India’s trials, involving 3,000 participants, showed 80% efficacy against disease from Delta. They are also presently testing against Omicron.
