First home-grown mRNA vaccine comes as a new booster, but not for those who took 3 shots

A novel home grown Covid-19 vaccine designed to boost immunity against the omicron variants circulating worldwide is set to enter India’s Covid vaccination programme but it will not be available to nearly a third of the vaccinated population under current policy that does not allow a second booster dose.

The omicron-specific booster shot of India’s first mRNA vaccine will cost Rs 2,292 per dose with the developer Gennova Biopharmaceuticals claiming that it will be available for use from Monday onward.

The vaccine received regulatory approval earlier this week for anyone above 18 years but experts say it is more desirable for the high-risk population including those who are over 60 years of age, having a co-morbidity and health care workers.

But even among the eligible, not everyone will be able to take the mRNA shot as government policy forbids anyone who has already received three doses to get a fourth one.

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“The third dose is only for those who have taken the two primary doses and yet to receive the precautionary one,” said N K Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group at the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation at the launch of Gemcovac-OM here on Saturday.

While more than 95 crore Indians have taken two primary doses, the uptake of the precautionary shot remains low with just about 28 per cent of the eligible population receiving the dose even though the union government has offered it for free for a few months.

Since most of the Covid-19 vaccines in India including the latest one were approved for “emergency use” by the Drugs Controller General of India, Arora said such vaccines would not be sold in the open market.

This effectively means the Union government currently controls access to primary and booster shots against Covid-19 infections. All Covid-19 vaccinations are done through the CoWIN platform that records the data and provides vaccination certificates.

"We will work with the government to sort this out," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. “Booster is needed for high priority groups as per WHO guidance. We will work with the Government to discuss the scientific merit of the booster as per global guidance.”

This is the third Covid-19 vaccine approved by the DCGI in the last ten months as a heterologous precautionary shot for those who received two primary doses of Covishield or Covaxin. But only one of the booster shots (Corbevax) shows up in the CoWIN platform.

Bharat Biotech’s intranasal vaccine (iNCOVACC), approved as a booster in December, 2022 doesn’t show up on CoWIN, but Gemcovac-OM, according to the company officials, will soon appear on the e-platform.

Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh while launching the vaccine said within a year of implementation, the government’s Mission Covid Suraksha led to the development of the world's first DNA vaccine for Covid-19, nation's first mRNA vaccine, intranasal vaccine candidates and a subunit vaccine against Covid.

Gemcovac-OM – the world’s first non-injectable mRNA vaccine – was developed with a financial support of Rs 125 crore from the Department of Biotechnology. The vaccine remains stable at 2-8 degrees Celsius temperature, doesn’t require an ultra-cold storage unlike the Pfizer and Moderna products, and is applied intradermally using an injector.