‘3 lakh doses of intranasal Covid vaccine dispatched’
New Delhi: Bharat Biotech dispatched three lakh doses of its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to some hospitals two days ago, the company’s executive chairman Krishna Ella said on Sunday.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an event for the establishment of the first-ever UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru.
iNCOVACC, the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, was launched on January 26. The vaccine is now available on CoWIN and priced at Rs 800 for private markets and Rs 325 for the government of India and state governments.
“We dispatched three lakh doses of the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to some hospitals two days
ago,” Ella said.
On whether Bharat Biotech is looking at exporting the vaccine, he said some countries and international agencies are approaching the company for the intra-nasal vaccine.
iNCOVACC is also the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to receive approval for the primary 2-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose for adults.
Ella said the UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.
He also suggested that all state drug regulatory bodies should be merged with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO) to ensure “one quality one standard” for Indian drugs.
His comments came in the backdrop of questions being raised about the quality of Indian drugs over the past few months. The latest instance was on Friday, when the Tamil Nadu-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its entire lot of eye drop linked allegedly to vision loss in the US.
Before that, India-made cough syrups were allegedly linked to children deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.
The whole of Indian pharmaceutical industries cannot be sullied for a handful of cases, he said. “Even in Western countries, some of the companies are penalised on quality issues.”
“There should be a single regulatory framework in India. All state drug regulatory bodies should be merged with the CDSCO and that will solve the problem,” Ella said.
