Zydus Cadila's needle-free COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D likely to be launched by October

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New Delhi: Zydus Cadila`s needle-free coronavirus vaccine - ZyCoV-D - is likely to be available by early October, sources told ANI on Saturday. India`s drugs regulator approved the Zydus Cadila vaccine for emergency use on August 20. ZyCoV-D is the world`s first plasmid DNA vaccine for Covid-19. 

It`s a three-dose vaccine that will be administered on day zero, day 28, and day 56. The vaccine has been approved to be administered to adolescents between ages 12 and 18. 

"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 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," Zydus Cadila said in a statement earlier. 
Recently in an exclusive interview with ANI, Dr Sharvil Patel, Managing Director of Zydus Group said that the supply of the vaccine will start from October onwards. 

"The supply of vaccine will begin by mid-September and from October onwards, the supply will be scaled up to one crore doses per month," said Patel.

On expected supply of vaccine till December, Patel said the company is expecting to scale up 1 crore doses per month from October and it will supply 4-5 crore doses per month till January 2022.

"We can scale up production of a vaccine up to 1 crore a month from October at the new production plan, and it is expected to supply 4-5 million doses till January 2022," he said. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), more than 73.73 crore Covid vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far. A total of 64,49,552 vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Saturday.Currently, Covishield, Covaxin, and Sputnik V vaccines are being administered to the eligible population above 18 years.