India gets its 1st vaccine for children above 12; Zydus’s 3-dose ZyCoV-D approved

Plasmid DNA-based ZyCoV-D becomes the sixth vaccine approved for use in the country after Serum Institute’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V and the US-made Moderna and Johnson and Johnson

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New Delhi, August 20

Indigenously developed Zydus Cadila Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D has 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 on Friday.

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. — PTI