Indigenously developed Zydus Cadila's Covid-19 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.
Here's all you need to know about it:
1. ZyCoV-D is India's first vaccine approved for children above the age of 12 and its a three-dose vaccine. It has been developed in partnership with the government's Department of Biotechnology. It can be applied using a needle-free injector.
2. This is the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus. The 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.
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.
Read | India approves Zydus Cadila's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use for adults, children over 12
3. It is the sixth vaccine to get the emergency use authorisation in the country after Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the vaccines of Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. Of these, Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V are available and currently in use.
4. There would be 216 crore vaccines doses available for people in the country between August to December. Of these, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had said Zydus Cadila will provide five crore doses. Zydus Cadila in a statement said it plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses of ZyCoV-D annually.
5. The ZyCov-D vaccine has completed phase 1, 2 and 3 of trials. The trial had been conducted on 28,000 individuals, of which 1,000 of them were children in 12-18 years age group. The result of the clinical trial showed 66 per cent efficacy. As per trial data, 67 per cent of the people did not test positive after taking the jab versus those who were not inoculated. Trial data also showed that while two doses prevented severe symptoms, three doses keeps even moderate symptoms away.
(With agency inputs)