Zydus Cadila’s vaccine, developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, is the second home-grown shot to get emergency authorisation
AMN / WEB DESK
India’s drug regulator DCGI today approved Zydus Cadila’s three-dose COVID-19 DNA vaccine for emergency use in adults and children aged 12 years and above, bringing in the sixth vaccine authorised for use in the country.
The company said it plans to manufacture 100 million to 120 million doses of ZyCoV-D annually and has started to stockpile the vaccine.
Zydus Cadila has received approval for Emergency Use Authorization from the Drug Controller General of India for ZyCoV-D vaccine. Ministry of Science and Technology in a statement said that it is the world’s first and India’s indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans including children and adults 12 years and above.
It has been developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology under the Mission COVID Suraksha and implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, BIRAC. This three-dose vaccine, when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from disease as well as viral clearance. The plug-and-play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring.
The Ministry said, interim results from Phase-3 Clinical Trials, in over 28 thousand volunteers, showed primary efficacy of 66.6 per cent for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases. This has been the largest vaccine trial so far in India for COVID-19. This vaccine had already exhibited robust immunogenicity and tolerability and safety profile in the adaptive Phase I and 2 clinical trials carried out earlier. Both the Phase I, 2 and 3 clinical trials have been monitored by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board.