On Wednesday Zydus Cadila begin the supply of ZyCoV-D to the government. It is a needle-free anti-Covid vaccine, for which the government made an order of 10 million vaccine doses for the national anti-Covid immunisation programme, last year.
“The company has started the supplies of its Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D to the government of India against their order from its newly commissioned, state-of-the-art Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Changodar, Ahmedabad,” said the company in a statement.
A three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine is the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine. The dose will be provided intradermally, using the painless PharmaJet needle-free system called Tropis. Each shot costing around 265 rupees (plus 93 rupees for the applicator, including GST) will have to be taken within three intervals of- 1st day, 28th day and 56th day.
“Zydus VTEC manufactures the drug substance for the needle-free DNA Plasmid vaccine, ZyCoV-D. The manufacturing process and in-process material transfers within the plant are automated,” Zydus said in the statement.
Zydus Cadila has an agreement with Shilpa Medicare Limited, to produce doses of ZyCoV-D. It also has a pact with Enzychem Lifesciences of the Republic of Korea for the manufacturing license and technology transfer for the vaccine.
The company mentioned that they are capable of producing 10-12 million doses per month. However, right now they are just supplying to the government and the vaccine will hit the market after the official’s approval.
The Union health ministry has said the “Zydus vaccine would initially be used in districts in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal having low first dose coverage.”
