Vaccine business. Zydus’ Covid vax ZyCoV-D falls behind as pace picks up for precautionary doses

Ahmedabad, Dec 29 At a time when India is set to get an indigenously-developed nasal vaccine for Covid-19, iNCOVACC from Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, there seems to be much less traction for the first-mover in the needle-free segment of vaccines, ZyCoV-D from Zydus Lifesciences.

A recent submission by the government in the Parliament revealed an unencouraging response to the vaccine, approved as part of the primary doses.

Government procurement

The administration of ZyCoV-D in adult population (18+) was opened in February 2022 after the government started the procurement.

Also read

Zydus sees no significant business from ZyCoV-D with negligible demand

The Centre had placed an order for one crore doses of the three-dose vaccine in November 2021.

A year later, on December 9, 2022, responding to a question in the Parliament, the Union Health Ministry informed that “a total of 1.5 lakh vaccine doses have been procured by the Government from Zydus Cadila at ₹375.90 per dose (including GST).”

ZyCov-D is administered intradermally using the PharmaJet needle-free system Tropis in the intervals of 28 days.

Push for precaution doses

Meanwhile earlier Earlier this week, Bharat Biotech priced its nasal vaccine iNCOVACC at ₹800 per dose for private markets and ₹325 for government procurements. It will be rolled out as the precautionary third dose, in late January.

Now, as there are fresh concerns over the new Omicron sub-variant, the government has intensified its focus for administering booster doses. And it remains unclear if ZyCoV-D is seeking approvals as a precautionary dose, as well.

On its preparedness for tackling the potential requirements amidst renewed Covid concerns, Zydus informed that it is geared up to supply its covid portfolio of products for immediate requirements.

Sharvil Patel, managing director, Zydus Lifesciences informed, “We are assessing the situation and are ready to support the Government of India in tackling any fresh outbreak of COVID-19. Our agile supply chain is well positioned to address any requirement of therapeutic medicines as well as vaccines and diagnostics.”

However, there is no word on ZyCoV-D - the world’s first plasmid DNA needle-free vaccine. Despite being listed on the Cowin dashboard, there is no vaccination centre – paid or free - to book a slot.

Even as ZyCoV-D didn’t take off in domestic market with desired quantities, as company officials have said in the past, Zydus Lifesciences had planned to market it in private markets and for exports.

Vaccines business

Anticipating a robust demand for this product, Zydus had created an inventory of about 50 lakh doses by the time it received the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) in August 2021 from the Indian drug regulator. It had planned to build an inventory of about 4-5 crore doses by early 2022.

But by May 2022, the management realised the dull response to the vaccine.

However, that has not hampered the company’s ambitions on its overall vaccines business. Zydus has enhanced its focus on flu vaccine, rabies, measles rubella (MR) and typhoid conjugate vaccines.

COMMENT NOW