Enzychem to Partner with Zydus Cadila to Manufacture COVID-19 Plasmid DNA Vaccine in Korea

Enzychem Lifesciences and Cadila Healthcare Ltd, a part of the Zydus Group, announced that they have entered a Manufacturing License and Technology Transfer Agreement for the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine (ZyCoV-D). Following the results of a large clinical trial involving nearly 30,000 subjects, ZyCoV-D was recently granted emergency use approval (EUA) by India’s national regulatory agency for subjects 12 years and above.

Under the terms of this agreement, Zydus shall transfer its manufacturing technology and provide technical assistance to Enzychem. Both CHL and Enzychem believe that this partnership will lead to estimated manufacturing of 80 million or more doses of the plasmid DNA vaccine in 2022. Accordingly, Enzychem shall pay Zydus license fees and royalties for the commercialization of the Plasmid DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine made in Korea and exported to a number of countries, including low-medium income countries (LMICs) in Latin America and Asian New Southern Policy member countries.

Mr. Ki Young Sohn, Chairman of Enzychem Lifesciences said: “Today marks an important milestone for our vaccine consortium as we embark on the manufacturing of the world’s first- in-class DNA vaccine for humans. This technology allows vaccines to be produced at affordable costs in record time, and DNA vaccines are considerably stable. The vaccine is administered intradermally using the PharmaJet needle free applicator, which ensures painless intradermal vaccine delivery and can thus be deployed more readily, especially in resource-poor populations where these are urgently needed. With state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and a qualified workforce dedicated to manufacturing high quality products, we are very eager to partner with Zydus in addressing the global demand for COVID vaccines, especially in low-medium income countries.”

Speaking on the development, Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Cadila Healthcare Ltd., said, “We are very happy to partner with Enzychem Lifesciences and provide access to the technology behind the needle-free, Plasmid DNA vaccine technology which is the first of its kind in the world. Our aim is to provide new innovations and novel technologies that can support people with better approaches to healthcare. This agreement enables people in South Korea and other key markets of Enzychem, the access to a safe, well tolerated and efficacious vaccine with a novel platform to fight COVID-19.”