Covishield vs Covaxin: How do they stack up against each other?

India has approved two vaccines  Covishield and Covaxin for emergency use to fight Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, is made from a weakened version of common cold adenovirus that causes infections in chimpanzees and its overall efficacy was found to be 70.42%.

Bharat Biotech and ICMR’s ‘Covaxin’ is made by using particles of the coronavirus that were killed. SII earlier said it’d price vaccine at $3 for government.

While Covishield is originally developed by Oxford University-Astrazeneca, it has been produced and marketed as ‘Covisheild’ by Pune-based vaccine conglomerate, Serum Institute of India (SII).

Covaxin is India’s first fully-developed and produced COVID-19 vaccine, made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech

While Covaxin is still in the final stage of clinical trial and no efficacy rate has been made public for this Covid-19 vaccine, the efficiency of Covishield has been pegged at over 70 per cent.Both Covishield and Covaxin are two-dose Covid-19 vaccines.

Also, both vaccines are easy to store as they require to be kept at 2-8 degree Celsius. Currently, government is controlling the vaccination drive against Covid-19, and it is free. The Covishield vaccine is reported to cost the government around Rs 400-450 or Rs 200-225 per dose.  Reports say the Bharat Biotech has priced its Covid-19 vaccine at Rs 350.