The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday approved Bharat Biotech’s intranasal ‘Five Arms’ booster dose for restricted use in COVID-19.
According to reports, DCGI has already given emergency use authorization (EUA) to Bharat Biotech for the intranasal vaccine for ages 18 and above.
Earlier, ANI reported quoting the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) members of DCGI as saying that the five arms heterologous intranasal booster dose – iNCOVACC (BBV154) – means, “Arm 1: 2 covaxin – booster covaxin, Arm 2: 2 covaxin – booster I/N vaccine, Arm 3: 2 Covishield- booster Covishield, Arm 4: 2 Covishield- booster I/N vaccine, Arm 5: 2 intranasal- booster intranasal.
The pharma company in its earlier statement said iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein.
Reportedly, the company had stated iNCOVACC was developed in partnership with Washington University St. Louis, which had designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored constructs and evaluated them in preclinical studies for efficacy.
Meanwhile, iNCOVACC has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunisation to protect from emerging variants of concern.
The company claims that it promises to play a significant role in mass immunisation campaigns during pandemics and endemics.
The vaccine maker had also stated that iNCOVACC is stable at 2-8°C for easy storage and distribution.
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Moreover, the company has reportedly established large manufacturing capabilities in various regions across India, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana with operations pan India.
(With inputs from agencies)