India's Zydus Cadila begins production of COVID-19 vaccine

India’s Zydus Cadila Healthcare, on April 23, 2021, kickstarted the production of the ‘ZyCoV-D’ COVID-19 Vaccine with an aim to produce up to 240 million doses per year. The company will seek emergency use authorization in May or June.

Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Cadila Healthcare, said the company has just begun producing doses. The aim is to produce 10 million doses a month beginning June thus taking the in-house annual capacity to 120 million. The company is already in talks with two manufacturers.

Cadila has been sourcing all its ingredients domestically for the vaccine. "Everything for us is done in India. Our supply chain is secure. We don't have any issues for the next 14-15 months," he further said.

About ZyCoV-D COVID-19 Vaccine

ZyCoV-D is the first indigenously developed DNA plasmid-based vaccine. It was developed by Cadila Healthcare in India and approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). It is a needle-free painless way of administering the vaccine intradermally through a specific device.

ZyCoV-D: Clinical Trials

Cadila Healthcare developed a DNA plasmid-based COVID-19 vaccine in February 2020 at the Vaccine Technology Centre in Ahmedabad.

The phase-1 and phase-2 human trials were approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The phase-2 trial for ZyCoV-D was conducted on over 1,000 healthy volunteers. ZyCoV-D was found to be safe and immunogenic during the trials.

In November 2020, after receiving the approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the company announced that it will conduct a phase-3 trial test of the vaccine on 30,000 patients. The vaccine was administered across four cities, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Surat, and Nashik.

India: COVID-19 Tracker

#CoronaVirusUpdates:

📍#COVID19 India Tracker
(As on 24 April, 2021, 08:00 AM)

➡️Confirmed cases: 1,66,10,481
➡️Recovered: 1,38,67,997 (83.49%)👍
➡️Active cases: 25,52,940 (15.37%)
➡️Deaths: 1,89,544 (1.14%)#IndiaFightsCorona#Unite2FightCorona#StaySafe @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/5TUMFE4qGv

— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) April 24, 2021

India, on April 24, 2021, has reported 1,66,10,481 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 25,52,940 active cases and 1,89,544 deaths.