Zydus Cadila vaccine price finalised, rollout to begin soon: Mansukh Mandaviya

The price of Zydus Cadila vaccine is expected to be higher than Covishield and Covaxin

Moneycontrol News

October 27, 2021 / 09:58 IST

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

After rounds of negotiations, the Union government and Zydus Cadila have finalised the price of its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said on October 26. The rollout of ZyCov-D is expected to begin soon for everyone above the age of 12.

"The pricing of the ZyCoV-D vaccine has been finalised. The manufacturers had started production immediately after getting emergency use authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)," Mandaviya said, as quoted by Economic Times.

Asked when the vaccine will be introduced in the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, the health minister said, "immediately".

Read | Over 103 crore vaccine doses administered in India so far, says govt

Despite hard negotiations, the Zydus Cadila vaccine is expected to be priced higher than Covishield and Covaxin, but lower than what makers had quoted earlier, as per the ET report.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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