The Government is likely to give its emergency approval for use authorisation (EUA) to Zydus Cadila's needle-free Covid-19 vaccine 'ZyCoV-D' this week, according to news reports on Monday.
Notably, 'ZyCoV-D' will be the sixth Covid vaccine to be available in India. Five Covid vaccines namely Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine - have already been endorsed by the Government so far. 'ZyCoV-D' will be a 3-dose vaccine and the company’s plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses yearly, Zydus Cadila had said in a statement last month. The pharma conglomerate added that it had conducted the largest trial of Covid vaccine in India spreading across 50 testing centres.
Earlier, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had said in Parliament that four more Indian pharmaceutical companies may start the vaccine production by October-November to accelerate the inoculation drive. Mandaviya said that even 7 to 9 per cent of the doses that remain unutilised by the private hospitals are being used by the government vaccination centres. He added that Biologicals E and Novartis vaccines will also be available in the market in the coming days, while Zydus Cadila will soon get an emergency-use nod from an expert committee.
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