Hours after seeking emergency use approval for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate from India’s drug regulator, Sharvil Patel, MD, Zydus Cadila on Thursday said that the company expects to produce 1 crore vaccine doses per month from August onwards.
“We expect to produce 1 crore vaccine doses per month from August onwards and 5 crore doses by December this year. Our target is to produce 10 crore vaccine doses in a year,” Sharvil Patel said on its Covid vaccine candidate ‘ZyCoV-D’ production.
Earlier today, the Indian pharma company had applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) with the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
The company said it has conducted the largest clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine in India so far in over 50 centres.
“The company has applied for EUA to the office of DCGI for ZyCoV-D – its Plasmid DNA vaccine against COVID-19,” Zydus Cadila said in a statement.
Patel said the vaccine when approved will help not only adults but also adolescents in the 12 to 18 years age group.
The company said it has also evaluated a two-dose regimen for ZyCoV-D vaccine using a 3 mg dose per visit and the immunogenicity results had been found to be equivalent to the current three-dose regimen.
This will further help in reducing the full course duration of vaccination while maintaining the high safety profile of the vaccine in the future, the company added.
If approved, ZyCoV-D will be the world’s first DNA vaccine, Zydus said, as it makes use of a portion of the genetic code – DNA or RNA – in the SARS-CoV-2 virus to stimulate an immune response against its spike protein.
DNA vaccines differ from other approved COVID-19 shots, which are based on new mRNA technology such as in those from Pfizer and Moderna, and established technology like viral vectors, as with AstraZeneca.
Shares of Cadila Healthcare Ltd on Thursday closed 0.90% lower at ₹639.40 apiece on BSE.
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