India's first ever nasal Covid vaccine iNCOVACC launched by Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech's nasal Covid vaccine iNCOVACC was launched by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday. It is the country's first nasal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.In December, Bharat Biotech announced that the homegrown nasal vaccine would sell the intranasal vaccine for Rs 325 per shot for procurement by the government and Rs 800 per shot for private vaccination centres.

Terming the intranasal vaccine a 'global game changer', Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech had previously said, "We are proud to announce the approval of iNCOVACC, a global game changer in intranasal vaccine technology and delivery systems. Despite the lack of demand for Covid-19 vaccines, we have continued product development in intranasal vaccines to ensure that we are well-prepared with platform technologies for future infectious diseases."

The nasal vaccine has been developed in partnership with Washington University St Louis, which has designed and developed and evaluated it in preclinical studies for efficacy. Product development related to preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation and delivery device development, including human clinical trials, were conducted by Bharat Biotech.