NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (NNN-PTI) – Indian drugmaker, Zydus Cadila, yesterday received emergency use authorisation from the country’s drug regulator – Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), for its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCov-D, officials said.
“Zydus Cadila received approval for emergency use authorisation from the DCGI, for ZyCoV-D today, 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,” a statement issued by the federal ministry of science and technology said.
ZyCov-D is developed in partnership with the department of biotechnology, and implemented by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council.
“This three-dose vaccine, which, 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,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, interim results from phase-III clinical trials, in over 28,000 volunteers, showed primary efficacy of 66.6 percent for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases.– NNN-PTI
