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Bharat Biotech is gearing to start trials of its intra-nasal Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
When contacted, a company source told BusinessLine : “Mostly, trials will start by February-March.”
Last September, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had entered into a licensing agreement with Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis for a novel chip retrovirus, single-dose intra-nasal vaccine for Covid-19. Bharat Biotech owns the rights to distribute the vaccine in all markets except the US, Japan and Europe.
Phase-I trials will take place at Saint Louis University’s vaccine and treatment evaluation unit.
Bharat Biotech will pursue further clinical trials in India. It also plans to undertake large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine at its GMP facility at Genome Valley here.
Single dose
Krishna M Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, has been vocal on various platforms about the ‘strengths’ of his company in the intra-nasal vaccine segment and the ‘advantages’ of a single dose nasal vaccine as against two-dose injection-based Covid vaccines. If successful, the company hopes to produce one billion doses.
An intra-nasal vaccine is perceived to be a better option for Covid prevention on account of its ease of administration and the speed in covering a large population.
Bharat Biotech had earlier said its intra-nasal vaccine candidate has shown ‘unprecedented’ levels of protection in mice studies.
Currently the two vaccines — Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institute of India’s Covishield — approved for emergency use are two-dose vaccines administered with a gap of about three weeks
Bharat Biotech has also almost achieved the target of recruiting 26,000 volunteers for Covaxin’s Phase-III trials, with 25,800 already on board.
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