The Government of India (GoI) over the last several months has emphasised on the importance of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine and has appealed to the people to get jabbed to stay safe from the viral infection. Currently, Covishield (from Serum Institute of India), Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) and Sputnik V (from Gamaleya Research Institute) are being administered in India.
However, the needle-free vaccine from Zydus Cadila, ZyCoV-D, will also be added to the list as the government is planning to give an emergency approval (EUA) for the same.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently confirmed that four more pharma companies from India will start the production of the vaccine, and the process is expected to begin in October or November 2021. Once the production of these indigenous vaccines begins, the doses would be useful to cater to the demands raised in India.
Initially, the Zydus Cadila vaccine, once approved for EUA, will be available for adults. The firm has also conducted a trial over 50 centres in the country, and aims manufacture more than 10 crore doses in a year.
As per reports, the firm has also tested the efficacy of the vaccine for children between the age group of 12-18. Approval is being sought for three-dose of ZyCoV-D which will have to be administered on Day 0, 28, and 56. Zee News quoted the MD of Cadila Healthcare Dr Sharvil Patel who said that this vaccine would be the 'first-ever plasmid DNA vaccine' to be approved.
Besides the above mentioned vaccines, India will soon have vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Reports state that the Union Government aims to complete the vaccination across India by December 2021. At present, the process has been delayed repeatedly due to the unavailability of the vaccine. Officials from the state governments have complained that the stock of vaccines is not being made available on a regular basis.
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