New Delhi: After the Drug Controller General has granted emergency approval to the Zycov-D, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadilla group, making it the first vaccine in India that can be administered to adults as well as those 12 and above, the government advisory committee National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI) on Monday said that the children above the age of 12 with comorbidities will be prioritised for vaccination, according to a News18 report.
Some supply of Zydus Cadila’s Zycov-D vaccine will be set aside for comorbid adolescents, said NTAGI chief NK Arora. However, vaccinating adults remains a priority, he said.
The NTAGI further said the process for approval of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children will begin by September-end or October, CNBC-TV18 reported. “We are projecting up to 10 cr Covaxin doses per month from September,” Arora said according to the report.
Interim results from Phase-III Clinical Trials showed a primary efficacy of 66.6 % for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases. “This has been the largest vaccine trial so far in India for COVID-19. This vaccine had already exhibited robust immunogenicity and tolerability and safety profile in the adaptive Phase I/II clinical trials carried out earlier. Both the Phase I/II and Phase III clinical trials have been monitored by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB),” the Department of Biotechnology said in a statement on Friday.
The vaccine has been developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology under the ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’, The three-dose vaccine once administered produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response.
“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,” the DBT noted.
This is the fifth vaccine, after Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V and Moderna to be approved for use in India. Inspite of nearly 57 crore doses administered since January, the mainstay of India’s vaccination programme continues to Covishield and Covaxin, with the former being nearly 90% of the doses administered so far. About a third of adults have been administered atleast one dose and and 10% two doses.