Indian pharmaceutical company, Zydus Cadila's two dose COVID-19 vaccine has received approval to carry out phase 3 clinical trials from health authorities in India.
The company has already received an EUA (emergency use authorisation) for its three dose covid vaccine after clinical trial results found it to be 66.6 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illness.
The three dose vaccine has been approved for all over the age of 12, as is the first Indigenous COVID vaccine to be tested on kids.
However, the details of either of the trials has not been made public yet.
What to Know About the 2 Dose Vaccine
Like its three dose vaccine, Zydus Cadila's two dose vaccine is also a DNA vaccine.
DNA vaccines are a relatively new technology and Zydus Cadila COVID vaccine is the first of it's kind.
The two dose vaccine is needle-free which also makes it preferable for young kids.
This also means that it's pricing will likely be steeper than other COVID vaccines in the market. Questions were previously raised about Zydus Cadila's three dose vaccine being priced at 1900.
"Since this is a three-dose vaccine and comes with a needleless delivery system, it would have a differential pricing than the existing vaccines which are being used in the COVID vaccination programme."Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary as quoted by MoneyControl
Updates on the Phase 3 Trial
The decision by the drugs regulator to grant the approval is based on recommendation by the Subject Expert Committee last month, reported Economic Times.
“After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended for grant of permission to conduct the Phase III clinical trial subject to the condition that, the volume of blood to be withdrawn in the paediatric cohort shall be as per National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants issued by ICMR,” Economic Times quoted the minutes of meeting.
(Written with inputs from Economic Times and Moneycontrol.)
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