The Covovax shot developed by US vaccine-maker Novavax may be cleared for use in India between July and September, which would make it the fifth vaccine approved in the country.

The vaccine would cost a "low single dollar" price per dose but is likely to be costlier than Covishield, NDTV quoted the company's CEO as saying. 

According to Stanley Erck, the president and CEO of Novavax, Covovax is effective on Covid variants.

However, the data of its effectiveness against the Delta variant is not known yet.

"We have conducted clinical trials that show that the vaccine works extraordinarily well in phase 3 trials in the UK. And in the US we are in the last stages of preparing all of the clinical data, the safety data, and now the manufacturing data that has to go into a licensing package,"  Erck said.

"Our expectation is that the package will be complete very soon, certainly in the coming quarter," he said.

Novavax has reportedly shown 90 per cent effectiveness against COVID-19.

"We have very high rates of efficacy when there are variant circulating, we had a 100 per cent protection against moderate and severe disease, and we were 93% protective against the variants that were circulating in our US trial. What we did not show is anything that gets Delta because Delta was not circulating during our trial. So we don't have those data yet. So time will tell," Erck said.

"What we hope, based upon the data that we have against a variety of variances, is that we will have a significant amount of efficacy against Delta. I just can't tell you what that number is yet, because we have not been in the trial where Delta has been circulated," he added.(SAM)