The Centre has finalised the pricing for ZyCoV-D Covid vaccine with manufacturer Zydus Cadilla, at Rs 265 per dose and the needle-free applicator will cost Rs 93 per dose excluding GST.
It has also placed an order of one crore vaccine doses for world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine.
“Zydus Cadila has received an order to supply one crore doses of ZyCoV-D, the world’s first plasmid DNA Vaccine, to the government of India at Rs 265 per dose and the needle-free applicator being offered at Rs 93 per dose, excluding GST,” said a statement from Zydus Cadila.
The pricing has been decided in consultation with the government, it said.
Zydus Cadilla’s Managing Director, Dr Sharvil Patel said: “We are happy to support the government’s vaccination programme with ZyCoV-D. The needle free application of the vaccination, we hope, will motivate many more to vaccinate and safeguard themselves from Covid-19, especially children and young adults in the age group of 12 to 18 years.”
ZyCoV-D is world’s first DNA plasmid vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. It is also the first COVID-19 vaccine which is needle-free and administered using an applicator to ensure painless intradermal vaccine delivery which also leads to a significant reduction in any kind of major side effects.
It has shown good stability at temperatures of around 25 degrees Celsius for at least three months. The thermostability of the vaccine will help in easy transportation and storage of the vaccine without any problems of fluctuations in temperature. For prolonged use, a temperature of 2-8 degrees is sufficient.
Also being a DNA plasmid vaccine, ZyCoV-D doesn’t have any problem associated with vector-based immunity. The DNA Plasmid platform allows generating new construct quickly to deal with mutations in the virus.
The vaccine was approved by India’s regulatory authority on August 20. The three dose DNA built vaccine has 66.6 per cent efficacy against Covid, says the manufacturer.
The second dose will be administered on day 28 from the first dose and the third one on the 56th day from the first dose.
