The Narendra Modi government may soon extend the expiry date or shelf-life of Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D by three more months, News18.com has learnt.
Zydus Cadila’s much-awaited vaccine ZyCoV-D, touted as the world’s first DNA vaccine, is yet to be rolled out in the country’s immunisation drive. While it was expected that the vaccine will be administered to teenagers in the 15-18 age group along with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin starting January, till now only the latter has been included in the drive.
Addressing the nation on December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India will start vaccination for children aged 15 to 18 from January 3.
The company has already got a stock of 2.37 lakh doses cleared by the country’s apex laboratory, the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL). The first batch was released by the CDL after testing in October.
In November, according to two top government officials, domestic pharmaceutical giant Zydus Cadila had requested the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the extension of expiry date, also known as shelf life, of the vaccine from six to nine months.
“Their stock was lying idle which must have been cause for concern for the company and made them apply for extension,” the senior official privy to the development said.
“Stability studies were performed on three batches that had shown that the expiry date can easily be pushed from six months to nine months. The vaccine remains extremely safe,” the official said. “The approval for extension has been given by CDL in Himachal Pradesh. The officer of DCGI will inform the company shortly.”
ZyCoV-D is one of the two vaccines approved for teenagers along with Covaxin. The vaccine was approved for children above 12 years in August whereas Covaxin was approved for the same age group last week.
In October, Niti Aayog Member-Health Dr VK Paul had explained that “the government is working on the trainers and logistic issues related to the deployment of vaccines.”
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