New Delhi:Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday gave permission to Bharat Biotech for intranasal booster dose trials. Intranasal vaccine (BBV154) has the potential to prevent Covid transmission and this can also be used as a booster dose against variants of concern.
The vaccine maker says that Covaxin is formulated uniquely such that the same dosage can be administered to adults and children alike. With an established proven safety and efficacy record in adults for the original variant and subsequent variants, Covaxin is very well suited for children.
Bharat Biotech is targeting to make one billion doses of its Covid-19 intranasal vaccine annually while it is on track to achieve one billion doses of Covaxin, India's first indigenous Covid vaccine.
The development of Covaxin has contributed to India being self-reliant against Covid-19 and has successfully thwarted the onslaught of variants of concern largely, ensuring that severity, and hospitalisation is minimised to those administered during 2021.
The R&D and manufacture of Covaxin and other Covid-19 vaccines has developed partnerships with several Indian academic institutions and companies such as the ICMR, NIV Pune, IICT Hyderabad, Indian Immunologicals, Bibcol, Haffkine Institute, Hester Biosciences, Biovet, etc.
This is exactly the vision of Dr Krishna Ella, whereby innovation and product development results in improving the science ecosystem and leads to nation-building. India's preparedness to deal with pandemics has become strong, and we will lead the world through major advancements in the development of vaccines and manufacturing prowess.
Also read:Bharat Biotech targets one billion doses of intranasal vaccine annually
