First made in India intranasal COVID vaccine to be launched on Republic Day

Bharat Biotech's CMD Krishna Ella said on Saturday that the company's intranasal COVID-19 vaccine iNCOVACC will be available on January 26. The nasal vaccine, the first of its kind in India, has previously been approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) earlier this month. "Our nasal vaccination will be formally launched on Republic Day, January 26," Ella remarked during a session at the 8th edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF), which began on Saturday at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT).

The session was titled 'Face-to-Face with New Frontiers in Science'. The company had earlier announced that it would price the intranasal vaccine at Rs 325 per shot for procurement by the government, and 800 per shot for private vaccination centres. As per the vaccine manufacturer, the nasal route has excellent potential for vaccination due to the organised immune system of the nasal mucosa. Thus, intranasal immunisation of ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-S can create an immune response in the nose, which is the point of entry for the virus, thereby protecting against disease, infection, and transmission. The nasal vaccine can be taken after six months of the second dose.