Zydus Cadila’s needle-free Covid-19 vaccine to get approval

India is to get its sixth Covid-19 vaccine soon as drug firm Zydus Cadila’s needle-free Covid-19 vaccine called ‘ZyCoV-D’ is all set to get emergency use authorisation (EUA) approval.

Key Points

• Presently, Indian government has authorised five vaccines for Covid-19 namely, Covaxin, Covishield, Sputnik V, Moderna’s vaccine, and J&J’s single-dose vaccine.
• Zydus Cadila applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) with Indian drug regulator for its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine and has planned to manufacture 10-12 crore doses annually.
• Company conducted largest clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine in India at over 50 centres.
• For the first time, this vaccine was tested in the adolescent population aged 12-18 years age group in India.
• Around 1,000 subjects were enrolled under this age group.
• Vaccine was found to be safe and very well tolerated.

Who will authorise the vaccine in India?

Company applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) with office of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for plasmid DNA vaccine called ZyCoV-D..

New Facility for manufacturing

A new facility to manufacture ZyCov-D was set up at July end to produce vaccine at scale. Zydus Cadila has invested Rs 400 crore to Rs 500 crore to develop this vaccine.

Efficacy of the vaccine

In the interim analysis, Zydus Cadila is found to be 66.6 percent efficient for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases. No moderate case of COVID-19 disease was observed after administering third dose. It suggests, 100 percent efficacy against moderate disease. Further, no severe cases or deaths due to occurred after second dose of this vaccine.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2021