India to Initially Introduce ZyCoV-D Covid Vaccine in 7 states

Seven states including Maharashtra and West Bengal are going to be introduced with the ZyCoV-D Covid-19 vaccine of Cadila Healthcare, news agency Reuters reported on Thursday.

Mr. Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, who reviewed the status and expansion of the “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign with the health secretaries and National Health Mission (NHM) directors of the states and Union territories through a video conference, directed the seven states to recognize the districts with a high number of the first dose left out for the introduction of ZyCoV-D. A statement issued by the Union Health Ministry said, the seven states are Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

All the seven states have been asked to use the Pharmajet Injector and have been informed to recognize vaccinators and to train them to use these for vaccination.

Pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila will supply 1 crore (10 million) doses of ZyCoV-D, the world’s first Plasmid DNA Covid vaccine, to the Centre by this month. The initial order of 1 crore doses has already been placed by the center.

The Centre had placed an order to supply one crore (10 million) doses earlier of ZyCoV-D at Rs. 265 (US$ 3.53) per dose, and the needle-free applicator was provided at Rs. 93 (US$ 1.24) per dose, excluding GST.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has recently permitted ZyCoV-D for restricted use in an emergency situation in the age group 12 years and above.

ZyCoV-D is the first DNA plasmid vaccine in the world for human use, developed indigenously by Zydus Cadila against the Covid-19 virus. This vaccine is the first COVID-19 vaccine that can be administered by using a Pharmajet, which is a needle-free applicator and it ensures painless intradermal vaccine delivery thus reducing the major side effects of the vaccine significantly.

The vaccine has shown impressive stability at a temperature of around 25 degrees for at least three months. The vaccine can easily be stored and transported because of its thermostability.

For prolonged use, a temperature of 2-8 degrees is sufficient. ZyCoV-D doesn’t have any problem associated with vector-based immunity because it is a DNA plasmid vaccine. The DNA Plasmid platform permits producing of new constructs quickly to deal with mutations in the virus.