India to get its 6th COVID vaccine soon as Zydus Cadila might get emergency use approval this week: Report
COVID-19 Vaccine: According to news agency ANI, ZyCoV-D will likely get the nod for use among adults first. Currently, India uses Serum Institute's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: India might soon get its sixth vaccine against the highly contagious COVID-19 infection as Zydus Cadila's three-dose vaccine ZyCoV-D might get emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the expert committee by this week, reported news agency ANI quoting sources.
According to ANI, ZyCoV-D will likely get the nod for use among adults first. Currently, India uses Serum Institute's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
This comes a week after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in Rajya Sabha said, "the government expects that in October-November, four more Indian pharmaceutical companies will start production of indigenous vaccines that will help to meet the domestic demand, Biological E and Novartis vaccines will also be available in the market in the coming days, while Zydus Cadila will soon get an emergency use nod from Expert Committee".
Zydus Cadila had applied for its COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D emergency use authorisation last week. The company has said that ZyCoV-D is a three-dose vaccine to be administered at day 0, day 28, and day 56, whose trials have been conducted in across 50 centers in India.
The Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical firm has also said that its trials were conducted in across 50 centers in India and it plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses of ZyCoV-D annually. It also said that ZyCoV-D can be stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for long-term use and 25 degrees Celsius for the short term.
Dr VK Paul, member of NITI Aayog, has also said that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is examining Zydus Cadila's COVID vaccine for children. He said that Zydus Cadila has enrolled more than 28,000 volunteers for their phase three study.
"We are hoping that they will apply in near future. Most of their study is complete. They have enrolled more than 28,000 volunteers in their phase 3 study. We expect they will submit the results very soon. We are hopeful of this vaccine because it would be the world's first DNA vaccine. We are very proud of their work," he said, as reported by ANI.
