Zydus Cadila’s Covid vaccine roll-out next month

Company MD claims that the vaccine is 66% efficient against the Delta variant of Covid-19.

A day after India’s drug regulator approving Zydus Cadila’s Zycov-d—the world’s first Plasmid DNA Vaccine for Covid-19—for emergency use in adults and children aged 12 years and above, the company’s MD Dr Sharvil Patel addressed a virtual press conference on Saturday and informed that they plan to roll out this vaccine commercially in mid-september. Talking about the pricing of this vaccine, Patel said, “Pricing we can say in one week’s time; currently communication is on and we are working with the regulatory authorities. Pricing will also depend on technology, delivery and volumes and we have a benchmark pricing.” Talking about efficacy, Patel claimed that the vaccine holds about 66% efficacy against the Delta variant of Covid-19 and “otherwise efficacy of our Covid-19 vaccine is over 66%”. “We plan to manufacture 10-12 crore doses of ZYCOV-D annually. This is the only needle free Covid vaccine in the world. It will take 4-6 months more to publish Phase-iii trial data. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is obtained on the basis of Phase I, II and interim efficacy data of Phase-iii. Production of ZYCOV-D vaccine will reach one crore by October and reach 3-4 crore by December 2021. The target of 5 crore will be reached by January 2022. This is due to delay in setting up new manufacturing plant due to the second Covid wave,” Dr Sharvil Patel said, adding that their main target currently is to expand production.

This is the only needle free Covid vaccine in the world. It will take 4-6 months more to publish Phase-iii trial data.