New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS): The CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawala, on Friday expressed hope that another vaccine against Covid-19 being developed by the institue may be launched in October for adults and for children by January-February next year.

Poonawala, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament for 30 minutes on Friday evening, said "We are very thankful to the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their support for improving and helping our industry to scale up vaccine manufacturing."

He added that his company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand.

"The Covovax vaccine for kids will be launched in the first quarter of next year, most likely in January-February," said Poonawala.

He also thanked the government for its support to Serum Institute and sounded hopeful that Covovax will be launched for adults in October, depending on approvals from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

Earlier in the day, the Serum Institute CEO met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and discussed the Covishield supply and scaling up production in India.

In return, Mandaviya assured the government's support in Covishield production to combat the Covid pandemic.

Meanwhile, the government has informed that 44.42 crore doses of Covishield have been supplied by the Serum Institute of India while 6.82 crore doses of Covaxin have been supplied by the Bharat Biotech International Limited for the National Covid Vaccination Programme from January 16 to August 5.