Expert panel suggests nasal Covid vaccine for adults: Centre

The vaccine, branded iNCOVACC, was approved by the country’s drugs regulator and will add to India’s arsenal of tools to fight the pandemic.

India’s technical expert committee on immunisation has recommended the use of Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine against Covid-19 as a booster for adults, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in Parliament on Thursday, with people aware of the matter separately saying that the roll-out could happen as soon as next week.

In a review meeting on Covid situation on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also urged for officials to take steps to encourage people to get their third doses, especially if they are vulnerable due to other illnesses or are of old age. (PTI)

The vaccine, branded iNCOVACC, was approved by the country’s drugs regulator and will add to India’s arsenal of tools to fight the pandemic. Experts are hopeful of its utility since it is easy to administer and creates immunity in the nose (the site where the coronavirus first takes hold) – factors that could help overcome hesitancy around booster doses.

“We are future ready with the basket of vaccines and the expert committee today has approved the nasal vaccine. It is a nasal vaccine, therefore, there is no need to be jabbed with this new vaccine; just a drop in your nose and you are secured,” said Mandaviya in Rajya Sabha.

A member of the national technical advisory group on immunisation (NTAGI), who asked not to be named, said that the data was robust for them to make the recommendation, although no data has been disclosed publicly, unlike the practice with other vaccines.

Doses adequate

Around 719 million of 940 million adults are yet to take boosters and a small number, 75 million, has not even taken their second dose, according to data analysed by HT.

If there is a sudden rush for these pending doses, a health ministry official said, there are adequate number of doses to distribute among states.

“We may not be able to vaccinate all immediately but we have significant (Covid vaccine) inventory. [The government] will consider additional procurement based on consumption patterns,” a senior health ministry official, asking not to be named.

In a review meeting on Covid situation on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also urged for officials to take steps to encourage people to get their third doses, especially if they are vulnerable due to other illnesses or are of old age.

While the health ministry did not share the exact number of vaccine doses available in its stocks, a person familiar with the matter pegged this number at nearly 20 million doses, with companies capable of manufacturing millions more at short notice. States are also keeping a close watch at the consumption pattern, a senior official of the Delhi government’s health department said.

The Capital has stocks to inoculate around 4,000-4,500 people every day while supplies from the central government varies based on weekly demand. “The problem that we have been facing is that we are not getting enough people for precautionary doses, and a vial can be opened only when we get at least 10 people at a centre. For this reason, in many districts, the waiting time for receiving vaccines is around five to seven days,” said the health official.

“If the Centre directs that we need to increase the vaccination centres and also require to boost vaccine coverage, we will follow directions,” the Delhi official said.

The two companies that largely drove country’s vaccination programme have stopped manufacturing doses of Covaxin and Covishield due to the drop in demand but said they have the capability to restart output quickly. “We have the capacity to meet the requirement,” said a spokesperson of Serum Institute of India, which locally manufactures the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine under the brand name Covishield, the mainstay of India’s vaccination drive.

Enough capacity

People familiar with the matter said that SII has the capacity to manufacture millions of doses but how many are made will depend on government orders. “They had to dispose of nearly 200 million doses as these were nearing expiration and wouldn’t want to be in the same spot,” this person said.

A Bharat Biotech spokesperson too said there was enough raw material for production.

Experts were particularly hopeful about the nasal vaccine, which has been developed by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US.

“Nasal vaccines might be able to prevent even asymptomatic Covid because it generates local IgA antibodies (first line of defence), cutting chain of transmission and possibly bringing an end to this pandemic,” said senior immunologist Dr Narinder Kumar Mehra.