Bharat Biotech's nasal Covid vaccine to cost Rs 325 for govt, Rs 800 for private hospitals

Vaccine developer Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) today announced that the Covid-19 vaccine iNCOVACC will be introduced in the country as a booster dose shortly. Earlier this month, Bharat Biotech received approval from the pharma watchdog Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for the use of heterologous booster doses of iNCOVACC. iNCOVACC is available on CoWin, and priced at Rs 800 for private markets and priced at Rs 325 for supplies to Govt of India and State Governments.

iNCOVACC booster dose is for people above 18 years of age. A press release from the vaccine maker said the jab will be rolled out in the fourth week of January, 2023.

This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phases I, II and III clinical trials with successful results. As per the company, iNCOVACC has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries, the official statement claimed.

“We have achieved the goals we set for ourselves during this pandemic. We have developed COVAXIN and iNCOVACC, two COVID vaccines from two different platforms, with two different delivery systems. The vectored intranasal delivery platform gives us the capability for rapid product development, scale-up, easy and painless immunization during public health emergencies and pandemics," noted Krishna Ella, Executive Chairman, Bharat Biotech.

"We thank the Ministry of Health, CDSCO, Dept of Biotechnology, Govt of India, Technology Development Board, and Washington University, St Louis, for their support and guidance," he added further.

The booster dose was developed in partnership with Washington University, St. Louis, which designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored construct and evaluated in preclinical studies for efficacy. Bharat Biotech conducted preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation and delivery device development, including human clinical trials. The process was funded in part by the Government of India, through Department of Biotechnology’s COVID Suraksha Program.

"iNCOVACC will be India's first needless vaccination. iNCOVACC’s manufacturing platform has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunization to protect from emerging variants of concern," the vaccine maker stated.
 

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Also read: Nasal vaccine booster dose available on CoWIN: how to book appointment and be safe from COVID