Indian authorities on Thursday launched the first nasal vaccine to treat Covid-19, first of its kind in the world, claimed Indian media.
The central Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh launched the world’s first COVID-19 intranasal vaccine, iNCOVACC, developed by India's Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, on the occasion of the country’s Republic Day.
The vaccine will be available to the government for INR 325 per dose, while it will cost INR 800 to private hospitals, reports said.
The company, in December 2022, got the approval for the primary 2-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose.
Before that, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had approved the restricted use of the intranasal vaccine in emergency situations in the age group of 18 and above.
iNCOVACC was developed in partnership with the Washington University, St. Louis, which had designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored construct and evaluated in preclinical studies for efficacy.
