Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 nasal vaccine gets Govt approval; to be available on CoWIN app from today

The Government on Friday approved Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 nasal vaccine as a booster dose. Bharat Biotech's intranasal Covid vaccine will be available in private centres and will be introduced on CoWIN on Friday evening, India Today reported.

Quoting official sources, the report stated that the nasal vaccine will be used as a heterologous booster and will be available first in private hospitals. It will be included in Covid vaccination program from today.

Last month, Bharat Biotech, the manufacturer of Covaxin, got approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for the use of the heterologous booster doses of iNCOVACC (BBV154), which is available as nasal drops.

The nasal vaccine is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in clinical trials at phases I, II, and III, with positive results.

The Ministry of Science, in a statement on December 1, said that this vaccine has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunisation to protect from emerging variants of concern. It promises to become an important tool in mass vaccinations during pandemics and endemics.

Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine can be administered to those above 18 years. Currently Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute’s Covishield and Covovax, Russian Sputink V and Biological E Ltd’s Corbevax are listed in the CoWIN portal.

The approval comes amid a spurt in Covid cases across several countries, including China, post which countries have gone on a high alert.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stressed on wearing masks, increased testing, focus on genome sequencing at a high-level meeting.

He urged everyone to follow Covid appropriate behaviour at all times, especially in view of the upcoming festive season, including wearing masks in crowded public places.

Also Read: Covid: Bharat Biotech's nasal vaccine as booster dose soon, likely to be available on Cowin from next week