"Healthcare professionals can now use Vaxzevria as a third dose booster in patients previously given a primary vaccine schedule of either Vaxzevria or an EU-approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccine."
Profit after tax slumped to $386 million (366 million euros), AstraZeneca said in a statement.
The Serum Institute has produced more than one billion doses of Covishield -- its version of the AstraZeneca jab -- and is a major supplier to the Covax global inoculation programme for poorer countries.
Infections from COVID-19 are still rising in parts of the world including Europe.
Profit after tax slumped to just $112 million (98 million euros) compared with $3.2 billion in 2020, the pharmaceutical company said in a statement.
The regulator of the state medical insurance fund said authorities ordered the arrest of all suspects, but did not give details of the suspected violations or the size of funds involved.
The increased response, also against the Delta variant, was seen in a blood analysis of people who were previously vaccinated with either Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine, the drugmaker said, adding that it would submit this data to regulators worldwide given the urgent need for boosters.
The study, yet to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, showed antibody levels against Omicron after the booster shot were higher than antibodies in people who had been infected with and recovered naturally from COVID-19.
The findings drawn from datasets in Brazil and Scotland suggest that booster programmes are needed to help maintain protection from severe disease in those vaccinated with AstraZeneca, known as Covishield in India.
The study was done independently by investigators at the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
The expected change comes with headaches for receiving countries that lack sufficient cold storage capacity to handle the Pfizer vaccine, and amid risks of a shortage of syringes needed to administer that shot.
An international team of researchers investigated vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), also known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a life-threatening condition seen in a very small number of people after receiving the adenovirus vaccines.
To a far greater extent than the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been the workhorse of the effort to vaccinate poorer countries, many of which are facing severe vaccine shortages. About 1.1 billion AstraZeneca doses had reached low- and lower-middle income countries as of around the end of October
A team led by researchers at the University of Montreal in Canada found that these antibodies were also effective against the Delta variant.
The Bengaluru-based clinical data and insights (CDI) division is a critical advancement to support a growing global portfolio and build on internal data expertise, the drug firm said in a statement.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had also tweeted that he had a detailed interaction with the WHO chief, accompanied by other senior officials of the global health agency on various issues related to health, including pandemic management and WHO reforms.
As part of the programme, the drug maker aims to help identify and support CLL reference laboratories (CRLs) in strategic locations across India and connect peripheral hospitals with them.
Valneva is among a handful of vaccine developers testing their vaccines against one already approved by a regulator, rather than giving volunteers a placebo as shots become more available.
The company has included data from a late-stage trial of more than 5,000 participants that showed the drug reduced the risk of people developing any COVID-19 symptoms by 77 per cent.
Private hospitals and clinics will give their paying patients the option to receive their second dose of the vaccine four weeks after the first, down from between 12 and 16 weeks currently, sources said.
The SII CEO's statement comes amid the row over the UK tightening quarantine rules for vaccinated Indians. As per the UK government's order, fully vaccinated persons arriving from a number of countries, including India, would be treated as "unvaccinated" and will have to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine.