PremiumZydus Group MD Dr Sharvil Patel on Saturday said that by next week, clarity on the price of its recently approved Covid-19 vaccine candidate ZyCOV-D vaccine will come next week.
In a virtual address, Patel also said that supply of vaccines will start in mid-September. “We can scale up production of vaccines to 1 crore a month from October at the new production plant," he added.
He also says that efficacy of ZyCOV-D vaccine is over 66%, and its efficacy against the Delta variant is about 66%.
On Friday, the indigenously-developed Zydus Cadila Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D received approval for Emergency Use Authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India and it will be administered to people 12 years and above, the Department of Biotechnology said.
This is the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus, and this three-dose vaccine when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance, it said.
The government's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) also said that the "plug-and-play" technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring.
"Zydus Cadila has received approval for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D today i.e. 20/08/2021, the world's first and India's indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans including children and adults 12 years and above," it said.
The vaccine has been developed in partnership with the DBT under Mission COVID Suraksha, the department said.
"It has been implemented by the BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) and ZyCoV-D has been supported under the COVID-19 Research Consortia through National Biopharma Mission for preclinical studies, Phase I and Phase II clinical trials and under the Mission COVID Suraksha for Phase III Clinical Trial," the DBT said.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!