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’s 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’s 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.
“This step will further strengthen our collective fight against the pandemic,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Twitter.
Bharat Biotech said in a statement last month that it had conducted two successful efficacy trials for the vaccine.
Data from the trials has yet to be given a wider release and it remains unclear when the product will be available for public use.
The announcement comes just two days after China launched the world’s first inhalable coronavirus vaccine, Convidecia Air, which is administered through a nebulizer.
India 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.
More than 200,000 people died within a few weeks, according to official figures, though experts believe the real toll is several times higher.
India has since administered more than two billion vaccine doses, fully inoculating more than two-thirds of its 1.4 billion population.
India approves its first nasal vaccine for Covid-19
https://arab.news/jbbkt
India approves its first nasal vaccine for Covid-19
- The new inoculation was developed by Bharat Biotech
- India's drug regulator gave the new product emergency authorisation on Tuesday
UN chief Guterres warns ‘powerful forces’ undermining global ties
- Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations
- He said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN“
LONDON: UN chief Antonio Guterres Saturday deplored a host of “powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation” in a London speech marking the 80th anniversary of the first UN General Assembly.
Guterres, whose term as secretary-general ends on December 31 this year, delivered the warning at the Methodist Central Hall in London, where representatives from 51 countries met on January 10, 1946, for the General Assembly’s first session.
They met in London because the UN headquarters in New York had not yet been built.
Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations and for continuing to champion it.
But he said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN.”
“We see powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation,” he said, adding: “Despite these rough seas, we sail ahead.”
Guterres cited a new treaty on marine biological diversity as an example of continued progress.
The treaty establishes the first legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of marine diversity in the two-thirds of oceans beyond national limits.
“These quiet victories of international cooperation — the wars prevented, the famine averted, the vital treaties secured — do not always make the headlines,” he said.
“Yet they are real. And they matter.”
