Bharat Biotech's nasal vaccine iNCOVACC priced at Rs 800 for pvt hospitals, Rs 325 for government

The intranasal vaccine is the first to get approval for the primary 2-dose schedule and as a heterologous booster dose

Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech has priced its intranasal Covid-19 vaccine at Rs 800 per dose in the private market and Rs 325 for supply through government channels in health care etc institutions.

iNCOVACC is to be administered as a booster dose for those above 18 years of age who had previously received two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.

For those wanting to take the dose in a private hospital, the final cost could be up to Rs 990 (including the five percent GST) and Rs 150 service administration charges, if applied by the private entities as was the case previously.

The needleless vaccine for easy, pain-free administration, India's first such booster dose, received the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) approval for emergency use last month.

Bharat Biotech is rolling out iNCOVACC (BBV154) at a time the Covid-19 fears are back in the country, with detection of the BF.7 strain. The Omicron variant has reportedly wreaked havoc in countries like China.

The Hyderabad based biotech firm is the developer of Covaxin (BBV152), in collaboration with ICMR-NIV, Pune.

Also Read | Epidemics that weren’t: How countries prevented outbreaks

A spokesperson for Bharat Biotech told DH that INCOVACC is made available on the government's CoWin platform for scheduling an appointment in the private hospitals. The vaccine will be rolled out in the fourth week of January – about a month's time from now, taking into consideration the assessment of demand, production and distribution of the doses across the country.

“We have developed COVAXIN and iNCOVACC, two Covid-19 vaccines from two different platforms, with two different delivery systems. The vectored intranasal delivery platform gives us the capability for rapid product development, scale-up, easy and painless immunization during public health emergencies and pandemics,” said Dr Krishna Ella, Executive Chairman, Bharat Biotech on Tuesday.

iNCOVACC was developed in partnership with Washington University, St. Louis.

Phase III trials (as a two-dose regimen) were conducted for safety, immunogenicity on 3100 subjects, in 14 trial sites across India.

Heterologous booster dose studies were conducted for safety and immunogenicity on 875 subjects, with iNCOVACC administered in those previously completing a regimen of the commonly administered Covid-19 vaccines. These trials were conducted in nine sites across India.

Bharat Biotech said that iNCOVACC recipients demonstrated significant levels of Mucosal IgA antibody levels (measured in the saliva). Mucosal IgA antibodies in the upper respiratory tract may provide benefits in reducing infections and transmission.

Clinical trials were conducted to evaluate iNCOVACC as a primary dose schedule too.

The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries, the company said. iNCOVACC is stable at 2-8°C for easy storage and distribution.

“iNCOVACC’s manufacturing platform has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunization to protect from emerging variants of concern.”

iNCOVACC development and clinical trials were funded in part by the Government of India, through the Department of Biotechnology’s, Covid Suraksha Program.