India’s first intra-nasal Covid-19 vaccine iNCOVACC launched
1 min read . Updated: 26 Jan 2023, 03:51 PM IST
Premium- Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh launch Bharat Biotech’s nasal Covid-19 Made-in-India vaccine iNCOVACC
Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh launched India's first made nasal vaccine against Covid-19 iNCOVACC.
The vaccine has been made by Bharat Biotech. The world's first made-in-India intranasal vaccine was launched at Mandaviya's residence here.
"Our nasal vaccine will be officially launched on January 26, on Republic Day," the company's chairman and managing director Krishna Ella said, participating in the 'Face-to-Face with New Frontiers in Science' segment of the IISF, organised at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) on Saturday.
In December, Bharat Biotech had announced that it would sell the intranasal vaccine for ₹325 per shot for procurement by the government and ₹800 per shot for private vaccination centres.
Recently, Bharat Biotech had announced iNCOVACC® (BBV154) as a booster dose in the country.
Earlier this month, Bharat Biotech had received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for the use of heterologous booster doses of iNCOVACC®.
"iNCOVACC® is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phases I, II and III clinical trials with successful results. iNCOVACC® has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries." the statement read.
Clinical trials were conducted to evaluate iNCOVACC as a primary dose schedule and as a heterologous booster dose for subjects who have previously received two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.
The vaccine is still not available on CoWin.
