India's first nasal covid-19 vaccine gets emergency use authorisation

New Delhi: India's first intranasal Covid-19 vaccine got the emergency use authorization from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for 18+ age group on Wednesday.

The vaccine was developed by Bharat Biotech with support of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the aegis of Mission COVID Suraksha.

The mission was launched by DBT and implemented by BIRAC to reinforce and accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development efforts as part of Aatmanirbhar 3.0.

"BBV154 is an intranasal replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus SARS-CoV-2 vectored vaccine. It consists of a replication deficient ChAd vector expressing the stabilized Spike SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan variant)" a official statement said.

" Scientific leadership at various levels of vaccine development was provided by DBT laboratories and BIRAC. This is the fourth success story for the Covid-19 vaccine under mission Covid Suraksha" it said.

Talking about the vaccination, Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary, DBT, and Chairperson, BIRAC said that “The Department through Mission COVID Suraksha, is committed to the development of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines.

He informed that BBV154 COVID Vaccine is the first intranasal vaccine approved by DCGI for primary immunization against COVID-19 in the 18+ age group for restricted use in emergency situation being developed in the country under Mission COVID Suraksha and adds to our repertoire of Covid-19 vaccine.

"This is an excellent example of Aatmanirbharta initiative of the Government of India. I congratulate our scientists for partnering with Bharat Biotech and providing scientific leadership throughout the development of first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine" he added.

As per statement DBT’s Autonomous Institute, National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi utilized their "Human Immune Monitoring and T-cell Immunoassay Platform" to examine the vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2-specific systemic and mucosal cellular immune responses the trial participants.

"Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA), Pune completed the Plaque Reduction Neutralization Assay (PRNT) to quantify the titer of neutralizing antibody for the virus from three trial sites" it said. (UNI)