PUNE: The national rollout of Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D, is going to take two more weeks.
“Different batches of ZyCoV-D are currently undergoing a final round of quality checks at the country’s apex vaccine testing laboratory in Himachal Pradesh. If everything goes as per plan, the vaccine will be introduced in the country’s immunisation programme by October 15-20,” Dr N K Arora, chairman of the Centre’s Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, told TOI on Sunday.
The three-dose needle-free ZyCoV-D vaccine, manufactured by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, is the first vaccine in the country that has received emergency use authorization (EUA) for being administered to people aged 12 years and above. The vaccine is based on the plasmid DNA technology and follows a three-dose regimen with a 28-day gap between each dose.
“Since it is a three-dose vaccine, we need to ensure availability of 1 crore doses each month for the next three months, so that those who have received the first shot get the two more doses in the specified timeframe,” Arora said.
Developed in partnership with the department of biotechnology, ZyCoV-D is a first-of-its-kind DNA vaccine that produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 to elicit an immune response. It is an intradermal vaccine that must be applied using a ‘needle-free injector’, which the manufacturer says will help in reducing side effects.
A total of seven adolescents from Pune have received three shots of ZyCoV-D as part of the countrywide advanced human trials that concluded in July this year.
“ZyCoV-D is the world’s first DNA vaccine. It has a three-dose schedule. It is given with a special needle-free injector as it is to be given intradermally (below the skin) and not intramuscularly. It will be the first vaccine to be used in paediatric population above 12 years in India,” Bharati Hospital’s medical director and chief paediatrician Sanjay Lalwani said.
The Central Drugs Laboratory in Himachal Pradesh’s Kasauli has been authorised by the Centre to ensure quality control in vaccines, including the Covid vaccines. Pune-based National Centre for Cell Science and Hyderabad-based National Institute of Animal Biotechnology have recently got the status of National Control Laboratory for vaccine testing and quality control.
In all, six vaccines — Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna, J&J and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D — have been granted EUA in India.
