Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday launched biotechnology company Bharat Biotech’s intranasal coronavirus vaccine iNCOVACC.
The vaccine will be made available to the government for Rs 325 per dose and to private hospitals at Rs 800 per dose, according to NDTV. The two doses of the vaccine have to be given in a gap of 28 days.
On December 1, the Union government had said that iNCOVACC has been given approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for restricted use in emergency situations. The vaccine got approval as a heterologous booster dose for adults, which means that it can be administered as a booster when primary inoculation was through a different vaccine.
iNCOVACC is the first India-made intranasal vaccine to get approval for restricted use, according to the press release issued by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
On August 15, Bharat Biotech had said that the vaccine was proven to be safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic in the Phase-3 clinical trials. The nasal delivery system has been designed to be cost-effective for low and middle-income countries, the vaccine maker had said in a press release.
India has administered 22,61,69,559 coronavirus vaccines since the nationwide inoculation drive began in January 2021. Of these, 2,54,521 vaccines were administered in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.
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