Zydus Cadila says will begin supply of its Covid-19 vaccine in mid-September
ZyCoV-D on Friday became India's second indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, and the sixth overall.
A day after Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D was cleared as India’s sixth vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Dr Sharvil Patel, the Managing Director of the Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical firm said on Saturday that the supply of the vaccine will begin in mid-September, adding that clarity on its price will be given next week.
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“The supply of vaccine will start in mid-September. Next week, we will have a clarity on its price. From October, we can scale up our production to 10 million per month from our new production plant,” Dr Patel said, according to news agency ANI. “The efficacy of our Covid-19 vaccine is at more than 66%, while that against the Delta variant is at about 66%,” he further said.
ZyCoV-D, which received Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday, was found to have a primary efficacy of 66.6% for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases, according to interim results from its phase 3 clinical trials. With more than 28,000 volunteers, this was the largest trial for a Covid-19 vaccine in India till now, the Union ministry of science and technology said in the statement in which it announced EUA for the vaccine.
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After Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited’s Covaxin, the Zydus Cadila coronavirus vaccine is India’s second indigenous anti-Covid shot. It also has several firsts to its name: It is India’s first Covid-19 vaccine for the 12-18 age group; it is also the first coronavirus vaccine in the world based on Plasmid DNA technology, as well as its first needle-free one.
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A three-dose vaccine, its second and third shots will be administered on the 28th and 56th days respectively. Zydus Cadila submitted its application for EUA on July 1.
Currently, every citizen above the age of 18 is eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the nationwide drive for which began on January 16. However, no date has been finalised yet for children. Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in July that the inoculation drive for kids is likely to begin in August.
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