Unless Pfizer or Moderna beat the company to it, Zydus Cadila’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate could be India’s first such jab approved for children. With superior thermostability and proposed economical pricing, it will be one to watch, though a three-dose regimen could be a dampener. Meanwhile, saroglitazar sees slow progress.

Zydus Cadila expects to launch its DNA COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 but it already has more advance purchase orders than it can produce. Meanwhile, the Indian firm is confident of saroglitazar being approved for primary biliary cholangitis in the US, with the NCE also poised to become the largest contributor to India sales in three to five years.

Multiple COVID-19 vaccines, including from J&J, Pfizer and RDIF, are seen gaining approvals in India in 2021, following on from a raft of R&D, manufacturing and marketing tie-ups, as well as other developments, in the action-packed field last year.