Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday launched the mRNA booster vaccine for the Omicron variant of Corona. India's first mRNA vaccine has been developed with funding support from the Department of Biotechnology and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), it said in a statement.

The statement further informed that Gemcovac-OM is the fifth vaccine developed under Mission Covid Suraksha implemented by DBT and BIRAC under the government's Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 package for rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. Even before this many vaccines have been developed in India. The vaccine recently got approval from the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) for emergency use.

During the launch, Jitendra Singh said that the existing supply chain infrastructure is sufficient to develop this vaccine. The specialty of this vaccine is that its vaccine can be administered even without using a needle. According to the statement, it is an 'intradermal' vaccine, which is given through a needleless device called 'Tropice'.

GEMCOVAC-OM is a thermostable vaccine, which means it does not need to be stored at extremely cold temperatures like other mRNA vaccines. It has been reported that this vaccine remains stable at a temperature of 2 to 8 degree Celsius.