India Officially Uses DNA-Based COVID Vaccine, ZyCoV-D: Claimed To Be Effective In Dealing With Virus Mutations

JAKARTA - The Indian government approved the emergency use of the original DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine made in India and the first in the world on Friday, August 20.

According to India's Ministry of Science and Technology, Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila, approved the three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine it is developing. In addition to the adult population, the vaccine can also be given to adolescents aged 12-18 years.

The ministry, reported by Anadolu via Antara, said the vaccine produced an abundant SARS-CoV-2 virus protein and provided an immune response. It plays an important role in protecting and eradicating viruses.

"The plug-and-play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily aligned to handle mutations in viruses, as is already the case," the ministry said.

He added that the vaccine was developed in partnership with the Indian government's Department of Biotechnology.

Preliminary results from the Phase III clinical trial, involving more than 28,000 participants, the vaccine showed a major efficacy of 66.6 percent, the ministry said.

The ministry added that ZyCoV-D is India's largest-ever trial of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The country of Bollywood now has six official vaccines used in the country. The Zydus Cadila vaccine is the second homemade vaccine after Covaxin, produced by the pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech.

As of Friday morning (20/8), more than 570 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in India, according to Ministry of Health data.

COVID-19 infections in India increased by 36,571 in a day to reach 32.3 million cases, for a total of 433,589 deaths, including 540 more new deaths.