The intranasal covid-19 vaccine, known as iNCOVACC (BBV154) by Bharat Biotech, would cost Rs 325 each dosage in public hospitals and Rs 800 in private facilities, the pharmaceutical giant announced on Tuesday. The fourth week of January will see the launch of iNCOVACC, which will also be accessible on the CoWin platform.
The Union health ministry has approved the intranasal vaccine from Bharat Biotech as a booster dosage for those over the age of 18. The business claims that iNCOVACC is the only intranasal vaccination for covid-19 in the entire globe to have been given the all-clear for a primary two-dose schedule as well as a heterologous booster dose.
In clinical trials, iNCOVACC was tested both as a primary dosage and as a heterologous booster dose for participants who had already received two doses of the two Covid-19 vaccines that are frequently used in India. A two-dose regimen was tested in phase III studies for immunogenicity and safety on about 3,100 participants at 14 trial sites across India. Around 875 participants who had previously finished a course of frequently delivered COVID immunisations participated in heterologous booster dosage experiments. Nine trial locations were used to conduct these experiments in India.
Video Courtesy: The Economic Times
According to Bharat Biotech, high levels of Mucosal IgA antibody levels were found in the saliva of iNCOVACC recipients. In the upper respiratory tract, mucosal IgA antibodies may be helpful in lowering infections and transmission. u201cWe have achieved the goals we set for ourselves during this pandemic. We have developed COVAXIN and iNCOVACC, two covid-19 vaccines from two different platforms, with two different delivery systems. The vectored intranasal delivery platform gives us the capability for rapid product development, scale-up, easy and painless immunization during public health emergencies and pandemics, said Dr Krishna Ella, executive chairman, Bharat Boitech.
iNCOVACC will be India’s first such booster dose as a needle-free vaccine. In terms of third doses or precautionary doses, India will now have additional options. The manufacturing platform of INCOVACC has the dual advantages of speeding up the development of variant-specific vaccines and facilitating simple nasal delivery that permits mass immunisation to guard against worrying developing variants.
Adenovirus-vectored vaccine called iNCOVACC has a pre-fusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and recombinant replication-deficient replication. Clinical studies for this vaccine candidate were conducted in phases I, II, and III with positive outcomes. The nasal spray was created with intranasal distribution via nasal drops specifically in mind. The nasal delivery technique was created and developed with low- and middle-income nations in mind.
The recombinant adenoviral vectored construct used in the vaccine was created in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, whose effectiveness was tested in preclinical tests. Bharat Biotech carried out product development activities such as preclinical safety assessment, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation and delivery device development, and human clinical trials. However, the Department of Biotechnology provided funding for product development and clinical studies. The intranasal vaccine is painless to administer and stable between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius for convenient storage and distribution.
The Omicron sub-variant BF.7, which is responsible for the recent increase of COVID-19 cases in China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the US, has also been found in India. Four cases in all, the earliest in July and the most recent in November, have been documented in four states. Less than 200 instances have been reported in India overall, which is still a small number. According to sources, there are currently ten different Covid-19 variants in the nation, with BF.7 being the latest.
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