Homegrown healthcare and pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila has applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) to the office of the Drug Controller General of India for ZyCoV-D, its plasmid DNA vaccine against Covid-19. "As the first-ever plasmid DNA vaccine for human use, ZyCoV-D has proven its safety and efficacy profile in our fight against Covid-19. The vaccine, when approved, will help not only adults but also adolescents in the 12-to-18-years age group," said Dr Sharvil Patel, MD, Cadila Healthcare Ltd, the flagship of the Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila Group. ZyCoV-D is a plasmid DNA vaccine which, when injected, produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response mediated by the cellular and humoral arms of the human immune system, which play a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance. ZyCoV-D has also been tested on adolescents between 12 and 18 years in India. Around 1,000 subjects in this age group were enrolled and the vaccine was found to be safe and very well tolerated. The tolerability profile was similar to that seen in the adult population. Zydus is currently setting up a new facility to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine. "Once the facility is commissioned by the end of this month, we can produce around one crore doses of the vaccine," added Patel, who refrained from giving a specific timeline for the launch of the vaccine but stated that it can be done aggressively within 45-60 days once it gets regulatory approval.