NEW DELHI
\nIndia on Tuesday approved a locally developed, needle-free and nasally administered Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, in a boost to the country\u2019s homegrown pharmaceutical industry.
\nThe new inoculation was developed by Bharat Biotech, which had already developed an intravenous product greenlit by the World Health Organization last November.
\nIndia\u2019s drug regulator gave the new product emergency authorization on Tuesday, which will allow it to be used as a primary dose by any unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adult, but not as a booster.
\n\u201cThis step will further strengthen our collective fight against the pandemic,\u201d health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Twitter.
\nBharat Biotech said in a statement last month that it had conducted two successful efficacy trials for the vaccine.
\nData from the trials has yet to be given a wider release and it remains unclear when the product will be available for public use.
\nThe announcement comes just two days after China launched the world\u2019s first inhalable coronavirus vaccine, Convidecia Air, which is administered through a nebulizer.
\nIndia was hit by a devastating spike in Covid cases last year that brought its health care system close to collapse, with oxygen supplies running out and patients scrambling to source medicine from depleted pharmacies.
\nMore than 200,000 people died within a few weeks, according to official figures, though experts believe the real toll is several times higher.
\nIndia has since administered more than two billion vaccine doses, fully inoculating more than two-thirds of its 1.4 billion population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI India on Tuesday approved a locally developed, needle-free and nasally administered Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, in a boost to the country\u2019s homegrown pharmaceutical industry. The new inoculation was developed by Bharat Biotech, which had already developed an intravenous product greenlit by the World Health Organization last November. India\u2019s drug regulator gave the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n