MC Exclusive | Bharat Biotech’s intranasal COVID-19 vaccine likely to be available only in corporate hospitals in major cities

Bharat Biotech has announced that the vaccine will be priced at Rs 800 per dose in the private market and Rs 325 for governments even though the Centre has said that it does not plan to procure the intranasal vaccine for public hospitals, at least for now.

The world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, iNCOVACC by Bharat Biotech, is looking at a launch in India by this month end. So far, however, only corporate hospitals in major cities have shown interest in procuring the vaccine, as demand for booster doses remains low.

Senior executives with the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), the largest body of private hospitals in the country, said that most major corporate hospitals have started negotiating with Bharat Biotech to procure the vaccine, albeit in small quantities.

“Since it’s a new vaccine and the demand for booster doses has not risen exponentially despite the COVID-19 scare in China, only big hospitals, mostly with 100 beds and above, are going to procure small quantities of the vaccine in the beginning,” said Girdhar J Gyani, director general of the AHPI.

As two doses of the vaccine, required even for those taking booster doses, will cost every beneficiary nearly Rs 2,000, interest in the vaccine may remain low, he said.

Bharat Biotech has announced that the vaccine will be priced at Rs 800 per dose in the private market and Rs 325 for governments even though the Centre has said that it does not plan to procure the intranasal vaccine for public hospitals, at least for now.

As private hospitals also charge Rs 150 as an administrative charge, every dose of INCOVACC will cost Rs 990 per user, when a 5 percent goods and services tax (GST) is also included.

Government nod for INCOVACC

The Union health ministry had recently allowed the vaccine on CoWin, the official app to register for and receive COVID vaccines, even though the spray is yet to be launched in the market.

The vaccine, once available, can be taken both as a booster by those who have taken Covaxin or Covishield earlier, and for primary vaccination against the COVID-causing coronavirus. The company says it plans to make the vaccine available in the Indian market by the fourth week of January.
A query sent to the vaccine maker on its negotiations with private hospitals has remained unanswered but sources in the firm told Moneycontrol that the initial stock to be released will be based on orders placed.

“The vaccine will be available in select hospitals once vaccine batches are cleared by the Central Drug Laboratory, Kasauli,” said a source.
This copy will be updated when Bharat Biotech responds to our queries.

Benefits of an intranasal vaccine

iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion-stabilised SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, developed with the help of researchers from the Washington University. It was evaluated in phase I, II and III clinical trials with successful results, as per Bharat Biotech.

“iNCOVACC has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops,” the company has said, adding that the nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries.

In the clinical trials, iNCOVACC recipients demonstrated significant levels of mucosal IgA antibody levels measured in the saliva, and these antibodies in the upper respiratory tract may provide a benefit in reducing infections and transmission, Bharat Biotech has said.

According to the vaccine maker, iNCOVACC’s manufacturing platform has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery, which enables mass immunisation to protect against emerging variants.

The company also said that despite the lack of demand for COVID vaccines over the last several months, it continued product development of intranasal vaccines, to be well-prepared with platform technologies for future infectious diseases.