ZyCoV-D vaccine supply to government begins

New Delhi: The innovative "needle-free" Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Zydus Cadila has now begun supply to the Government of India, the company announced on Wednesday. The vaccines will be manufactured in the company's newly commissioned Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Changodar, Ahmedabad.

The company is also planning to make the vaccine available in the private market, it said in a statement.

The Zydus Cadila vaccine is innovative for its needle-free approach, as it is administered nasally in three doses, at 28-day intervals. The vaccine will be priced at ₹265 per dose and the applicator being offered at ₹93 per dose excluding GST.

Zydus has also entered into a definitive agreement with Shilpa Medicare Limited, a contract manufacturing organization to produce mutually agreeable doses of ZyCoV-D. The company also entered into an agreement with Enzychem Lifesciences of the Republic of Korea for the manufacturing license and technology transfer for the Plasmid DNA Vaccine, as it is the first plasmid vaccine in the world.

The plasmid vaccine utilises the spike protein of the Covid-19 virus to create a response from the cellular and humoral arms of the body's immune system which play a vital role in fighting and eliminating the virus.

The national drugs regulator granted the ZyCoV-D vaccine approval for restricted use in emergency situations for people aged 12 and above. The company earlier announced it should have a production capacity of about 10-12 million doses per month.

The Union Health Ministry has said the Zydus vaccine would initially be used in districts in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal having low first dose coverage. The vaccine will be rolled out nationwide later.

For administering to adults, frontline workers and vaccinators will be provided with a brief training for using the needle-free pharma jet application in actual field settings.