Zydus Cadila’s COVID vaccine gets nod for Emergency Use Authorisation
   Date :21-Aug-2021

Zydus Cadila’s COVID vacc 
 
 
This is the world’s first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus and is three-dose vaccine. It is administered intradermally using a needle-free injector.
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. Plasmid DNA-based ZyCoV-D is to be administered intradermally using a needle-free injector.
 
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 company said it has conducted the largest clinical trial for the vaccine in India in over 50 centres so far.
 
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.