India's first needle free Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila to be administered in children above 12 years

India has achieved another success in the fight against COVID-19. Here is a piece of good news for all the Indians as the world's first and India's indigenously developed DNA based vaccine, Zydus Cadila, received approval for the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D.

India's first needle free Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D

Yes! You heard that right. According to reports in NDTV, Zydus Cadila received approval on Friday. The company said it plans to manufacture 100 million to 120 million doses of ZyCoV-D annually and has started to stockpile the vaccine. For the unversed, Cadila Healthcare Ltd is an Ahmedabad based generic drugmaker. It had applied for the authorization of ZyCoV-D on July 1, based on an efficacy rate of 66.6% in a late-stage trial of over 28,000 volunteers nationwide. ZyCoV-D can be administered in children above 12 years and adults. It is a three-dose vaccine currently, but we hear that the company is all set to seek approval for the two-dose regimen of the vaccine.

Reportedly, ZyCoV-D has also been tested on 1,000 children above the age of 12. The company had said earlier that the two-dose regime works as well as the three-dose regime, and has submitted relevant data on this for further scrutiny.

ZyCoV-D is a first of its kind DNA vaccine that produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 to elicit an immune response. It is an intradermal vaccine that has to be applied using a 'needle-free injector', which the manufacturer says will help in reducing side effects.

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