Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila is likely to get emergency use approval for its needle-free vaccine against COVID-19 this week, news agency ANI reported on Monday.
The Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company had applied for an emergency use authorisation for the three-dose DNA vaccine, ZyCov-D, on July 1. It had earlier said that the company can launch the vaccine within two months of receiving the approval.
Zydus claims that its vaccine is 66.6% effective against symptomatic coronavirus cases and 100% for moderate Covid-19. It also said the vaccine is safe for children between 12 and 18 years of age. However, its trial data is not peer-reviewed yet.
If approved, the vaccine will be India’s second indigenous vaccine and the sixth vaccine to be authorised for use in the country. India has already approved vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, AstraZeneca and partner Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, and Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.
ZyCov-D, which is being developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology and the Indian Council of Medical Research, can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius and at 25 degrees Celsius for up to three months. Once approved, it will be an intra-dermal (between skin and muscles) vaccine administered through a specialised needle-free injector. The currently licensed coronavirus vaccines are administered intra-muscularly.
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