Zydus Cadila's needle-free, plasmid DNA Covid vaccine for children, adults to be launched in September

New Delhi: The wait for the availability of the Zydus Cadila Covid-19 vaccine, which has received the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA), would soon be over as the country's first DNA-based vaccine is all set to be launched in September.

Though the price of the ZyCoV-D vaccine has not yet been finalised, the manufacturer has assured that the price of the dose will be fixed in the next one-two weeks as deliberations with the government is going on. According to Zydus Cadila's managing director Sharvil Patel, the company is making all efforts to roll it out as quickly as possible and the pricing would be decided in a few weeks.

"It's the first indigenous vaccine for adolescents and elders. The company is targeting to supply four crore doses of ZyCoV-D by the end of December, and possibly five crore by the end of January as Zydus has the capacity to manufacture 10-12 crore doses of the vaccine annually," he said at a virtual interaction with reporters.

"We have not started studies for the younger age group (2-12 years). We are working with regulators to work on a programme to do a study in the group. We are going to the regulator with the proposed trial in the next five to seven days. We hope to do trials very soon," Patel said.

On the efficacy of the vaccine, he added: "The emergency approval has been given by the DCGI on the basis of Phase-1, Phase-2 and Phase-3 interim efficacy data. As we have not completed the full phase-3, so it would take four-six months for the publication of efficacy-related data."

However, he maintained that the three-dose vaccine has been tested on 1,400 children belonging to the age group of 12-18 years.

Notably, ZyCoV-D is a three-dose vaccine that will be administered first on day zero, the second dose on the 28th day and the third dose would be administered on the 56th day. ZyCoV-D is a needle-free vaccine that will be administered like a band-aid patch on the skin and it will get dissolved in the layers of skin within a few days.

Describing the approval for Zydus Cadila's vaccine as a momentous feat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet on Friday had said: "India is fighting COVID-19 with full vigour. The approval for the world's first DNA based 'ZyCov-D' vaccine of @ZydusUniverse is a testimony to the innovative zeal of India's scientists. A momentous feat indeed."

ZyCoV-D is the sixth vaccine to get the emergency use authorisation in the country, after Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the vaccines of Moderna and Johnson and Johnson.

Of these, Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V are currently in use in India.