Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh launched iNCOVACC, world’s first made-in-India intranasal vaccine on Thursday, as the country marked its 74th Republic Day.
The vaccine has been made by Bharat Biotech. Its chairman and managing director Krishna Ella confirmed this while participating in the ‘Face-to-Face with New Frontiers in Science’ segment of the IISF, organised at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology on Saturday.
In December, Bharat Biotech had announced that it would sell the intranasal vaccine for ₹325 per shot for procurement by the government, and ₹800 per shot for private vaccination centres. Recently, the company had announced iNCOVACC® (BBV154) as a booster dose in the country.
iNCOVACC® is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion-stabilised SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phases I, II and III clinical trials with successful results. The vaccine has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries.
Clinical trials were conducted to evaluate iNCOVACC as a primary dose schedule and as a heterologous booster dose for subjects who have previously received two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.
