Consider the following pairs of vaccine and category/type : 1. Covaxin : Inactivated pathogen-based vaccine 2. Covishield : mRNA vaccine 3. Sputnik V : Viral vector-based yaccine Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched ?

The classification of COVID-19 vaccines depends on their underlying technology. Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, is a whole-virion inactivated vaccine, meaning it uses a dead version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to trigger an immune response . Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is not an mRNA vaccine; rather, it is a viral vector-based vaccine that uses a modified chimpanzee adenovirus. Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, is also a viral vector-based vaccine that utilizes two different human adenoviral vectors (Ad26 and Ad5) to deliver the genetic code for the spike protein. Therefore, pair 1 and pair 3 are correctly matched, while pair 2 is incorrect because mRNA technology is used in vaccines like those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, not Covishield.

Sources

1. [1] Science ,Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 3: Health: The Ultimate Treasure > Ability of the body to fight diseases > p. 37