MUMBAI: Soon a two-shot Covid-19 vaccine of Zydus LifeSciences could be rolled out, instead of the three-shot regimen currently approved. The company has received approval from the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) under the health ministry, paving the way for a nod by the drug regulator soon, sources said.
It is understood that the committee took up the Zydus LifeSciences' proposal this week.
In another development, the company has initiated mix-and-match clinical trials of its vaccine ZyCov-D as a booster shot, with the primary vaccine being either
Covishield or Covaxin. At present, the government has allowed the same vaccine as the first two doses as a precaution dose, and is awaiting real world data to see whether mix-and-match vaccines could elicit a better immune response.
Zydus LifeSciences, formerly Zydus Cadila, has already supplied one crore doses of the indigenously-developed ZyCoV-D, the world's first Plasmid DNA vaccine, to the government at Rs 358 per dose, or Rs 1074 for the complete three doses. Though the company bagged the government order in August 2021, the vaccine was rolled out only in February this year.