India’s first mRNA based Omicron-specific booster vaccine

Context

India’s first indigenous mRNA vaccine for the Omicron variant, GEMCOVAC-OM, developed by Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, was approved under emergency use guidelines by the Drug Controller General of India.

About

The vaccine is the first booster Covid-19 vaccine developed in India against the highly transmissible Omicron variant
The vaccine is a lyophilised (freeze dried) vaccine, stable at two to eight degrees Centigrade.
The vaccines could be administered into the skin via a “needle-free” PharmaJet system.

What are mRNA vaccines?

The mRNA vaccines use mRNA’s function as a protein information carrier to prompt the body to make specific proteins.
- In the case of COVID-19 vaccines, the mRNA instructs the cells to produce the spike protein found on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
When the body’s immune system detects these foreign proteins, it produces antibodies and other immune cells to fight what looks like an infection.
Then, if the immune system encounters that protein again in the future, it’s primed to mount a rapid response.

About messenger RNA (mRNA)