In order to give a decisive boost to its current national vaccination campaign against Covid-19, India has just approved a DNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. This is a world first.
Developed by the company Zydus Cadila, this new vaccine, named ZyCov-D, received on August 20 an emergency use authorization from the Indian drug agency, specifies The Times of India, relayed in France in International mail.
Its manufacturer, based in Ahmadabad, the main city in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat, plans to produce 120 million doses of its ZyCoV-D each year.
The company reports an efficacy rate of 66% after performing a final phase trial involving more than 28,000 volunteers across the country. However, the data on which this rate is based remain inaccessible, which does not make it free from criticism.
Either way, “India is set to launch the first DNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, which will be given to children over 12 as well as adults,” writes The Times of India.
– ANISH RAJPUT (@ ANISHRAJPOOT135) August 20, 2021
“This will be the fourth anti-Covid-19 vaccine available for mass use in India after Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V. In total, six vaccines have been approved for use in India (for use in urgency) ”, underlines again the great Indian daily based in Bombay.
Concretely, the ZyCov-D vaccine should be administered in three doses, each spaced twenty-eight days apart. It contains plasmids, that is to say circular DNA molecules, which contain the sequence encoding the main antigen of Sars-CoV-2, the famous Spike protein, in the shape of a spike.
Most coronavirus vaccines that use genetic material provide the body with the instructions to make a fragment of the Spike protein to trigger the production of antibodies by the immune system.
Easier to carry, easier to administer
Thanks to DNA technology, ZyCov-D has a weight advantage because this vaccine can be stored between 2 and 8 ° C, which makes it particularly competitive in terms of transport and storage.
Finally, it can be administered by a jet placed under the skin and not with the aid of needles, which, again, constitutes a serious advantage over other serums.
As Courrier International further specifies, of the 112 candidate vaccines in clinical trials, 11 are DNA-based, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) as of August 24.
India has so far administered more than 570 million doses of the vaccine, all of which have been approved so far.
The country aims to vaccinate its adult population of 950 million by the end of the year, but the vaccination campaign has been hit by shortages.
With more than 32 million cases of Covid-19 and 434,000 deaths linked to the disease, India is the second most affected country in the world by the pandemic, behind the United States.
