India approves 'world's 1st DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine'

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – India on Friday granted emergency use authorization to the “world’s first and India’s indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for COVID-19,” an official statement said.

According to the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Zydus Cadila, an Indian pharmaceutical company was granted approval for its three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine.

Apart from the adult population, the vaccine can also be administered to adolescents in the 12-18 age group.

The ministry said the vaccine “produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from disease as well as viral clearance.”

“The plug-and-play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring,” it said, adding that it has been developed in partnership with the Indian government’s Department of Biotechnology.

Interim results from Phase-III clinical trials involving over 28,000 volunteers showed a primary efficacy of 66.6%, the ministry said, adding that this was the largest COVID-19 vaccine trial so far in India.

India has now six vaccines approved for use in the country. Zydus Cadila's vaccine is the second homegrown jab after Covaxin, which was manufactured by pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech.

As of Friday morning, over 570 million vaccine doses had been administered in India, according to Health Ministry figures.

The country’s infection count swelled by 36,571 over the last day to cross 32.3 million, while 540 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 433,589.