Centre orders 1 cr doses of ZyCoV-D

The Centre will buy one crore doses of Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D, the first plasmid DNA vaccine for Covid-19 for its ongoing public inoculation programme.

The needle-free vaccine, which will be administered intradermally using an applicator, will be supplied at ₹265 per dose and the needle-free applicator will cost ₹93 per dose, excluding the GST. The pricing has been decided in consultation with the Union government, Zydus Cadila said in a statement on Monday.

Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Zydus Cadila, 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 12-18 years.”

Training for vaccinators

Simultaneously, the vaccinators are being trained to use the applicator. The total six milligram (6 mg) vaccine is to be administered in three doses of 2 mg each. And each dose is to be administered at “two sites” — in the arms — as a maximum 1 mg can be administered at one site.

According to sources, the second indigenously-developed ZyCoV-D will soon be integrated on the CO-WIN platform making it the fourth vaccine being used for the mass inoculation; Serum Institute’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Russian Sputnik-V are the other three.

On August 20, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had granted Zydus Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for ZyCoV-D for all those above 12 years of age. The vaccine, to be administered in the interval of 0-28-56 days, has shown 66.6 per cent efficacy.

To start with, the vaccine will be administered to those above 18, sources said.

Building inventory

The company had created an inventory of about 50 lakh doses by the time it received the EUA. It has started piling up tocks to reach about 4-5 crore doses by January.

Given the public procurement model for the mass vaccination, the government was understood to have hard bargained with Zydus Cadila to keep it price close to the existing two-dose vaccines — Covishield at ₹205 per dose and Covaxin at ₹215/shot.