India’s drug regulator has approved the world’s first DNA vaccine against Covid-19 for emergency use.
The three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 66% of those vaccinated, according to an interim study quoted by the vaccine maker Cadila Healthcare.
The firm plans to make up to 120 million doses of India’s second home-grown vaccine every year.
Previous DNA vaccines have worked well in animals but not humans.
India has so far given more than 570 million doses of three previously approved vaccines – Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V.