Zydus Cadila's COVID vaccine for kids ZyCoV-D to be rolled out soon; Centre negotiates pricing

Zydus Cadila's three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D will be rolled out soon for the national immunisation program. The Centre is currently negotiating the price of the vaccine with the drugmaker. With ZyCoV-D being cleared for use in children above the age of 12 with co-morbidities like cancer, respiratory, neurological, rheumatic, cardiac, liver, gastrointestinal, genitourinary and developmental disorders, the rollout will kickstart the vaccination program for children in the country.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on August 20 gave approval for emergency use to ZyCoV-D. ZyCoV-D is the world's first and India's indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus disease to be administered in humans including adults and children aged 12 years and above, the government said.

"The pricing of the ZyCoV-D vaccine has been finalised. The manufacturers had started production immediately after getting emergency use authorisation from the DCGI," said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

The final price is expected to be lower than the numbers quoted by manufacturers, but higher than the amount paid by the government for Covishield and Covaxin, reported Economic Times. Private hospitals will, however, have to negotiate their own prices with the manufacturers.

ZyCoV-D will inject genetically engineered plasmids that carry the code for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This will trigger the production of the spike protein of COVID-19 and stimulate immune-response in the form of B-cells. The plasmid DNA vector can theoretically be redesigned to various mutations much more easily than RNA vaccines like that offered by Pfizer and Moderna. The vaccine showed a 66.6 percent efficacy in symptomatic COVID-19 positive cases and 100 percent efficacy in moderate cases.