Indians’ will soon have access to Bharat Biotech’s covid-19 nasal vaccine “iNCOVACC” . Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that Bharat biotech nasal vaccine has been approved and will soon be added in CoWIN app.
The Covid-19 vaccine has received the approval for use as a booster dose -Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said. Bharat Biotech’s intranasal Covid vaccine will be available in private centres and will be introduced on CoWIN on Friday evening.
“The government of India has approved the Nasal vaccine. It will be used as a heterologous booster and will be available first in private hospitals. It will be included in Covid vaccination program from today,” official sources said.
The nasal vaccine — BBV154 — received approval of the Drugs Controller General of India in November for restricted use in an emergency situation for those above 18 years as a heterologous booster dose.
Government approves Use of Bharat Biotech Nasal Vaccine
The approval for the vaccine comes amid a spurt in Covid cases in China and some other countries.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting with the health ministers of the states and Union territories at 3 pm over the Covid related situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Thursday cautioned people against complacency and urged them to wear masks in crowded places, while also directing officials to strengthen surveillance measures, especially at international airports.
Bharat biotech’s Nasal vaccine, being a needless jab, will be India’s first such booster dose. It can be administered to those above 18 years. Pricing of the vaccine will be decided soon and it will be made available in government and private facilities.
Ministry of Science recognised the vaccine as the ‘World’s first intra-nasal vaccine for COVID developed by India’.
The nasal vaccine has been developed in partnership with Washington University St Louis, which has designed and developed and evaluated it in preclinical studies for efficacy. Product development related to preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation and delivery device development, including human clinical trials, were conducted by Bharat Biotech.
The product development and clinical trials were funded in part by the Government of India through the Department of Biotechnology’s, Covid Suraksha program.
