All You Need To Know About Needle-Free Zydus Vaccine

Zydus COVID-19 Vaccine: The Zydus vaccine has sought a nod from the Indian authorities after completing Phase 3 of trials in the country. The vaccine has also conducted trials on children volunteers and would be the first vaccine to be given to children if approved.

DCGI has the application of Zydus Cadila. It is undergoing a process of evaluation by the Subject Expert Committee. We're hoping to hear a positive response. It will be a moment of pride as it is a unique technology. It'll give a push to our vaccine program: VK Paul, Niti Aayog pic.twitter.com/yT7Jnf9wa2

— ANI (@ANI) July 2, 2021

This is what you need to know about the needle-free Zydus COVID-19 Vaccine

• Zydus vaccine is reported to be the world’s first ‘plasmid DNA’ vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccine contains the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 proteins. These proteins instruct the body cells to make the SARS-CoV2 antigen.
• It is the first vaccine to be tested in the 12-18-year-old age range in India.
• Zydus vaccine is also the largest tested vaccine across the country as they conducted trials at 50 sites in India.
• Zydus Cadila said that they have sought approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for emergency use authorisation (EUA) on July 1. It is improved for its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ‘ZyCoV-D’.
• What makes the Zydus vaccine different from most COVID-19 vaccines is that it is needle-free and is an intradermal vaccine. It is also reported to not be 'very sensitive to temperature'
• The volunteers who received Zydus exhibited immunogenicity and tolerability and safety profiles after receiving the three-dose ZyCoV-D. It was also found after monitoring the volunteers that no severe cases or deaths occurred completing the course of three doses.
• The company Zydus Cadila has spent over Rs 400 crore-500 crore. It is now 'evaluating' the trial response to optimising the doses of the vaccine to two from three. The two-dose vaccine regimen used 3 mg/dose and was found to be as effective as the previous one.
• An independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has monitored the Phase I/II and Phase III clinical trials which had about 28,000 volunteers.
• The company has said that they plan to manufacture 10-12 crore doses annually.
• The Centre wrote to the Supreme Court in an affidavit which read, "will be available for 12-18 age group soon, subject to the statutory permissions."

As per affidavit submitted by the Govt of India in Supreme Court, the projected availability of COVID19 vaccines from August'21 to Dec'21: Covishield-50 crore, Covaxin-40 crore, Bio E sub unit vaccine-30 crore, Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine-5 crore, Sputnik V-10 crore; total 135 crore pic.twitter.com/mpDVizjefM

— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2021

Feature Image credit: Money Control