10 Things To Know About COVID-19 Intra-Nasal Vaccine

The Union Health Ministry has approved the use of an intra-nasal vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19 in India. The vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech is the world's first nasal vaccine, till now only intramuscular vaccines were given to people.

So far, the world has witnessed the use of intramuscular vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19. However, with the ever-changing virus and its deadly variants infecting the world, the world felt the need to enhance the effectiveness of those vaccines. Hence an intra-nasal vaccine has been developed by India against COVID-19 that has been approved by the administration for use.

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO) has approved the use of the nasal vaccine for emergency cases for patients above 18 years of age. However, there is still not much awareness regarding it among the masses. Hence, here are 10 things about the nasal vaccine that you should know.

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10 Things About COVID-19 Nasal Vaccine

1. The vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech will only be available in private health centres in India. The information and option for the vaccine will be uploaded on the Co-WIN portal for people to schedule an appointment.
2. The vaccine will be available only for adults and the doses will be priced at 800 rupees each in the private market and 325 rupees each for large government orders. It can be used as a precautionary booster dose for adults.
3. The nasal vaccine's target will be the nasal passage of the person as it is the first site where the Sars-CoV-2 virus infects the body and will create a protective coat of antibodies in the nasal passage.
4. The vaccine provides a double benefit, the first is that easy nasal delivery will enable easier mass immunisation against the different variants of the virus and the second is that it enables the faster development of a variant-specific vaccine.
5. The vaccine is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vector vaccine that consists of a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein, says the reports.
6. Washington University School of Medicine has developed the vaccine dose in St. Louis. The vaccine can be easily stored at a stable temperature of 2 to 8 degree Celsius and the nasal vaccine provides a cost-effective way of COVID-19 prevention in low and middle-income countries.
7. Reportedly, the funds for the vaccine development and clinical trial were provided by the Government of India, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance (BIRAC) and the Department of biotechnology.
8. The vaccine was developed under the union government's Mission COVID Suraksha Program and has been approved only for emergency use. The vaccine has been approved for a primary 2-dose schedule, homologous booster doses.
9. Bharat Biotech has established large manufacturing units for the nasal vaccine in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Telangana to initiate fast distribution across India.
10. India is the first country to develop an intra-nasal vaccine and get it approved by the authorities in the world. Other countries like Australia are also in the final stages of the development of nasal vaccines.