India gets its first intranasal vaccine for COVID for Rs 800 per dose

Intranasal COVID-19 vaccine iNCOVACC: India on the 74th Republic Day got its first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine iNCOVACC.  On Thursday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh 2023 launched the first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech. iNCOVACC® is the world’s first Intranasal vaccine for Covid to receive approval for the primary 2-dose schedule. It has also got a go-ahead as a heterologous booster dose, administered as nasal drops. 

iNCOVACC has been rolled out as a booster dose for people above 18 years of age. The vaccine can be purchased for Rs 325 per shot at government hospitals and centres, and for Rs 800 per shot at private vaccination centres. 

iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilised spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phase I, II and III clinical trials with successful results. The nasal vaccine has been developed in partnership with Washington University St Louis, which has designed and developed it. Besides, it has also been evaluated its efficacy in preclinical studies. 

Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech had earlier said that the nasal vaccine can be a big 'global game changer'. "We are proud to announce the approval of iNCOVACC, a global game changer in intranasal vaccine technology and delivery systems. Despite the lack of demand for Covid-19 vaccines, we have continued product development in intranasal vaccines to ensure that we are well-prepared with platform technologies for future infectious diseases." 

Bharat Biotech has carried out product development related to preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation and delivery device development, including human clinical trials.  

The product development and clinical trials were funded by the Government of India through its Department of Biotechnology’s specialised programme, Covid Suraksha. 

“It is exciting to see the deployment of iNCOVACC in India as a nasally-delivered vaccine and booster,” said Dr Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, who co-developed the nasal vaccine technology along with his Washington University colleague Dr David T. Curiel.  

He added: “The continued waves of COVID-19 infection necessitate new strategies to overcome transmission. By generating immunity in the upper respiratory tract at the portal of entry of the virus, this vaccine has the potential to better limit spread of the virus than other approaches. Washington University licensed the vaccine technology to Bharat in 2020 for further development.”

Why nasal vaccines

Nasal vaccines can be more effective at preventing infections because the shots target the mucosal linings of the nasal airways, which is the point of entry for the coronavirus. By protecting these linings, the vaccine can block the infection and transmission of the virus in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts. INCOVACC is recommended as the first booster shot. The vaccine will be administered to people twice with a gap of 28 days.