India launches first nasal Covid vaccine
NEW Delhi:union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday launched the world’s first COVID-19 intranasal vaccine, INCOVACC. Developed by India’s Bharat Biotech, the vaccine will be available to the government for Rs325 per dose, while it will cost Rs800 to private hospitals.
The company, in December 2022, got the approval for the primary 2-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose.
Before that, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had approved the restricted use of the intranasal vaccine in emergency situations in the age group of 18 and above.
Two doses of the vaccine are to be given 28 days apart. The nasal vaccine cannot be administered to those who have taken a precaution or booster dose, the head of the country’s vaccine task force told NDTV last month, a week ater the vaccine was introduced on the Cowin plaform.
As per the vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, one can book an appointment for the intranasal vaccine dose by visiting the Cowin website.
incovaccwasdevelopedinpartnershipwiththe Washington University, St. Louis, which had designed anddevelopedtherecombinantadenoviralvectored construct and evaluated in preclinical studies for efficacy. Product development related to preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale up, formulation and delivery device development, including human clinical trials were conducted by Bharat Biotech.
Product development and clinical trials were funded in part by the Government of India through the Department of Biotechnology’s Covid Suraksha programme. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in lowand middle-income countries, Bharat Biotech said.
Phase-iii trials were conducted for safety, immunogenicity in approximately 3,100 subjects, at 14 trial sites across India.
Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said: “Despite the lack of demand for COVID vaccines, we continued product development in intranasal vaccines to ensure that we are well-prepared with plaform technologies for future infectious diseases...