- iNCOVACC priced at INR 800 for Private Markets and INR 325 for Governments
- Available on CoWin, it will be administered as booster dose for those above 18 years of age
IndiGlobal Bureau
Countdown has started for administering iNCOVACC, World’s first intranasal vaccine for Covid-19. Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) today announced that iNCOVACC will be rolled out from January in the country as a booster dose shortly.
iNCOVACC® is now available on CoWin, and priced at INR 800 for private markets and priced at INR 325 for supplies to Govt of India and State Governments. Earlier this month, Bharat Biotech received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for the use of heterologous booster doses of iNCOVACC®.
iNCOVACC® is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phases I, II and III clinical trials with successful results. iNCOVACC® 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.
Dr. Krishna Ella, Executive Chairman said; “We have achieved the goals we set for ourselves during this pandemic. We have developed COVAXIN® and iNCOVACC®, two COVID vaccines from two different platforms, with two different delivery systems. The vectored intranasal delivery platform gives us the capability for rapid product development, scale-up, easy and painless immunization during public health emergencies and pandemics. We thank the Ministry of Health, CDSCO, Dept of Biotechnology, Govt of India, Technology Development Board, and Washington University, St Louis, for their support and guidance.”
As a needle-less vaccination, Bharat Biotech’s iNCOVACC® will be India’s first such booster dose. India will now have more options when it comes to third doses or precautionary doses.
Clinical trials were conducted to evaluate iNCOVACC® as a primary dose schedule, and as heterologous booster dose for subjects who have previously received two doses of the two commonly administered COVID vaccines in India.
iNCOVACC® was developed in partnership with Washington University, St. Louis, which had designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored construct and evaluated 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.
