Zydus Cadila vaccine in September: Plan for 10-12 crore doses yearly, price to be announced in a week

According to Patel, Zydus Cadila had invested Rs 500 crore in developing the vaccine and in the manufacturing capacity with further investments expected as manufacturing capacity was being ramped up. The company had secured raw materials for next four to six months, Patel said.

Zydus Cadila said on Saturday the company would start delivering the Covid-19 vaccines from mid-September. The company will be ramping up capacity and be able to deliver one crore vaccines per month October onward. The company plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses annually.

The government had projected five crore vaccine doses from Zydus Cadila between August and December. However, there had been a 45-day delay in setting up the manufacturing plant due to the lockdown so the target of five crore vaccines would now be achieved by January next year, Sharvil Patel, managing director of Zydus Cadila, said. The company has a stockpile of around three to five million vaccines at present. The price for the vaccines could be announced in a week after discussions with the government, Patel said. The benchmark for vaccine prices had been set and it would not be very different from those , Patel said.

Apart from its own plant, the company was also in talks with three other manufacturers in India to scale up manufacturing, Patel said. They were also technology transfer talks going on with partners outside India. The company will also start manufacturing the needle-free applicators required for administering the vaccines in India. The initial lots are being imported from US. The pen device for administering the vaccine is coming from Singapore.

According to Patel, Zydus Cadila had invested Rs 500 crore in developing the vaccine and in the manufacturing capacity with further investments expected as manufacturing capacity was being ramped up. The company had secured raw materials for next four to six months, Patel said.

Zydus received Emergency Use Authorisation from Drug Controller General of India on Friday for the Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D. This is a Plasmid DNA Vaccine for Covid-19, administered in three doses with the first dose on day zero, second dose on the 28th day and third dose on the 56th day. ZyCoV-D is a needle-free vaccine administered using the PharmaJet needle free applicator, which ensures painless intradermal vaccine delivery.

The company carried out clinical trials across 50 sites in the country. For the first time trials were also carried out on children between 12 and 18 years and the trials covered 1,400 children. The vaccine had demonstrated a 66% efficiency. Patel said the company was planning to seek regulatory approval for the two dose regimen of the vaccine.