INTRANASAL COVID VACCINE – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News:
Private hospitals with advance orders to get intranasal COVID-19 shots soon
What's in the news?
● Union
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of Science and Technology
Jitendra Singh launched first-of-it’s kind intranasal COVID-19 vaccine iNCOVACC
manufactured by Hyderabad-based Vaccine developer Bharat Biotech International
Limited (BBIL) on January 26, 2023.
Key takeaways:
● The
vaccine is expected to be rolled out in private hospitals that have placed
advance orders.
● It
is priced at ₹800 a dose in private hospitals. For large volume procurement by
the States and the Union Government, it is priced at ₹325 a dose.
iNCOVACC:
● Bharat Biotech's iNCOVACC
(ChAd36-SARS-CoV-S - Chimpanzee Adenovirus Vectored) COVID recombinant nasal
vaccine is the world’s first Intranasal vaccine
for COVID to receive approval for the primary two-dose schedule, and as a
heterologous booster dose, administered as nasal drops.
● It
can be also used by those who have previously taken vaccines like Covidshield
or Covaxin can take a booster dose of iNCOVACC.
● The
product - iNCOVACC is stable at 2-8°C
for easy storage and distribution.
● The
iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine
with a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein.
● iNCOVACC
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.
● It
promises to become an important tool in mass vaccinations during epidemics and
endemics.
Significance:
● 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.
Nasal vaccine:
● Vaccines
are usually given through different routes, with the most common being
injectable shots delivered into the muscles (intramuscular) or the tissue just
between the skin and the muscles (subcutaneous).
● There
are also other routes of delivery, especially in some vaccines for infants,
that include administering the liquid solution orally instead of injecting. In
the intranasal route, the vaccine is sprayed into the nostrils and inhaled.
Significance of nasal vaccines:
● Many viruses, including
the coronavirus, enter the body through mucosa
- wet, squishy tissues that line the nose, mouth, lungs and digestive tract -
triggering a unique immune response from cells and molecules there.
● Experts
believe an intranasal vaccine can act against the virus from the time it tries
to break the body’s barrier.
● Nasal
vaccines trigger both the antibodies
such as IgG (to roam the body in search of the virus) and IgA (plays a key role
in destroying the airway pathogens).
○ Instead,
intramuscular vaccines generally fail at eliciting this mucosal response, as
they rely on immune cells mobilized from elsewhere in the body flocking to the
site of infection.
● These
vaccines aim to overcome potential difficulties with mass vaccination and reduce the cost by doing away with the need
for needles and syringes.
● Intranasal
vaccines are also expected to cut down
on the dependence on various trained personnel to administer the vaccine.
● It
can be self-administered in pandemics
and outbreaks by just simply squirting it into the nose.