On Friday, Zydus Cadila's vaccine – ZyCoV-D – received approval for emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). ZyCoV-D is the first COVID-19 vaccine for children in India to be green-lighted, it's also the world's first DNA-based vaccine and will be given to people who are 12 or older.
The jab produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 to elicit an immune response.
India's Ministry of Science and Technology said that the interim results from phase three clinical trials in over 28,000 volunteers showed a primary efficacy of 66.6 percent for symptomatic RT-PCR positive cases. It's is largest vaccine trial so far in India for COVID.
"This vaccine had already exhibited robust immunogenicity and tolerability and safety profile in the adaptive Phase I/II clinical trials carried out earlier. Both the Phase I/II and Phase III clinical trials have been monitored by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB)," India's government said in a statement.
The ZyCoV-D vaccine has been tested on 1,000 children above the age of 12 – it's an intradermal jab that has to be applied using a "needle-free injector," which helps reduce side effects, the manufacturer says.