New Delhi: India has set an ambitious target of vaccinating its entire population by the end of this year. To add ammo to the fight, the Union Ministry of Health finalized advance arrangement for 30 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses with Hyderabad-based M/s Biological-E Ltd on Thursday.
Here is a list of other India-made vaccines that may be rolled out soon:
- Zydus Cadila: The Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company has been authorized to provide its ZyCoV-D COVID vaccine. The company is expected to provide 5 crore doses by year-end. The group is working out a plan to test its ZyKov-D vaccine for Covid-19 for children between 5 to 12 years of age as well. Nucleic acid vaccines use genetic material from a disease-causing virus or bacterium (a pathogen) to stimulate an immune response against it. The vaccine genetic material orders instructions for making a specific protein from the pathogen, which the immune system will recognize and trigger a response against the virus.
- Gennova: The Centre has given approval to the Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals to provide vaccine doses against COVID-19. Gennova will be providing 6 crore doses. The company is working on India’s first mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, is in the midst of Phase-I trials of its Covid-19 vaccine (HGC019). The Phase-I trials will be completed in the next two months. Phase-II trials will resume after that and take a similar time frame. Gennova is a biotech subsidiary of Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals. The vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) carrying the genetic sequence for building the spike protein.
- Bharat Biotech’s Nasal Vaccine: Health ministry officials last month said that they hope to procure 10 crore doses of the nasal vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech by December. The vaccine candidate is currently under phase 1 trials. According to Bharat Biotech, its intranasal vaccine, BBV154, creates an immune response at the site of infection (in the nasal mucosa) essential for blocking both infection and transmission of Covid-19.
- Novavax: Despite the raw material issue for manufacturing Serum Institute of India’s (SII) local version of Novavax vaccine being sorted out after the United States lifted its export ban on raw materials last month, the launch may still get delayed in India. The United States-based vaccine maker Novavax, with whom SII has partnered, said that its worldwide launch of the COVID-19 shot will get pushed beyond September 2021. SII’s launch of its Novavax version, named Covovax, is likely to happen after the global launch, as its trial is based on comparing immunogenicity and safety data with the Novavax candidate. The health ministry said the Serum Institute of India will provide 20 crore doses of Novavax by December.
- The government is also expecting 75 crore doses of Covishield and 55 crore doses of Covaxin in the five-month period. The vaccine lot will have about 15.6 crore doses of Russia’s Sputnik V.
Advertisement
