Cadila Healthcare Surges On Receiving Emergence Use Approval For COVID Vaccine

Shares of Cadila Healthcare surged as much as 8 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 576.25 after it received emergency use approval from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for its Coronavirus vaccine ZyCoV-D. . ZyCoV-D is a three dose vaccine which will be administered first on day zero, day 28th and then on the 56th day. With this approval, India now has its first COVID-19 vaccine for the adolescents in the 12-18 age group, Cadila Healthcare said in a press release.

ZyCoV-D is a needle-free vaccine administered using The PharmaJet a needle free applicator, which ensures painless intradermal vaccine delivery.

"This is for the first time that a technologically advanced vaccine has been successfully developed on the Plasmid DNA platform for human use. The platform because of its rapid plug and play technology can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring. The company plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses of ZyCoV-D annually," Cadila Healthcare said.

"This is a historic milestone with ZyCoV-D, a product of Indian innovation becoming the world's first DNA vaccine being offered for human use and supporting the world's largest immunization drive," Pankaj R. Patel, chairman, Cadila Healthcare said in a statement.

As of 2:54 pm, Cadila Healthcare shares traded 3.6 per cent higher at Rs 554.45, outperforming the Sensex which was up 0.4 per cent.