The world’s first nasal Covid-19 vaccine will be launched through Bharat Biotech International in the fourth week of January 2023. The vaccine, iNCOVACC, is priced at €800 for the personal market and €325 for the public markets. The vaccine is now available at CoWin and will be rolled out as a booster dose for people 18 and older.
iNCOVACC, which will be administered in the form of nasal drops, was approved for the number one two-dose schedule and as a heterologous booster dose. India will now have an additional option for the third dose or preventive Covid doses. Krishna Ella, executive chairman of Bharat Biotech, said that the company has achieved the goals set for this pandemic and has developed Covaxin and iNCOVACC, two Covid vaccines from other platforms, with other delivery systems.
“The vector intranasal delivery platform gives us the ability to develop, scale, and temporarily vaccinate products in public fitness emergencies and pandemics seamlessly and painlessly,” Ella said. As a needle-free vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s iNCOVACC will be the first booster dose of its kind in India. Despite the lack of demand for Covid vaccines, Bharat Biotech said it is moving forward with product advancement in the intranasal vaccine box to be well prepared with platform technologies for long-term infectious diseases. Another benefit of iNCOVACC’s production platform was that it would allow for faster progression of variant-specific vaccines.
iNCOVACC is a replication-deficient adenovirus vector recombinant vaccine with a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein stabilized prior to fusion. Clinical trials have been conducted to compare iNCOVACC as the number one dosing regimen and as a heterologous booster dose for subjects who have already won. two doses of the two Covid vaccines administered in India.
Bharat Biotech said phase III trials (as a 2-dose regimen) were conducted to determine protection and immunogenicity in approximately 3,100 subjects, at 14 trial sites across the country. Heterologous booster dose studies were conducted to compare protection and immunogenicity in 875 subjects at nine test sites across India. The intranasal vaccine was given to those who had already been on a treatment regimen with commonly administered Covid vaccines.
“iNCOVACC recipients demonstrated significant levels of mucosal IgA antibodies (measured in saliva). IgA antibodies in mucous membranes in the upper respiratory tract can decrease infection and transmission,” the company said.
iNCOVACC evolved through Bharat Biotech in partnership with Washington University, St Louis. The product progression and clinical trials were funded in part by the Government of India through the Department of Biotechnology’s Covid Suraksha program.
Indian Railways will introduce sleeper versions of the Vande Bharat Express trains at 200 km/h, replacing the Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains. The sumptuous and comfortable Vande Bharat Express, designed through ICF Chennai, plans to expand its network to Mumbai. Bed trains can simply upgrade Shatabdi trains, but production will take time.