Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Friday received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for Phase 3 clinical trials of its intranasal vaccine BBV154 against Covid 19.
According to reports, the trials will be conducted at nine different sites — Atman Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat; AIIMS, Delhi and Patna; Oyster and Pearls Hospitals, Pune; Pt.BD Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana; Acharya Vinobha Bhave Rural Hospital, Wardha; Jeevan Rekha Hospital, Belagavi; Rana hospital, Gorakhpur; and Prakhar Hospital, Uttar Pradesh.
The Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Control Standard Organization (CDSCO) in the last meeting had recommended clinical trials of nasal vaccine. The trials will evaluate the nasal vaccine for both the two dose primary schedule, and booster dose schedule. Intranasal vaccines can be easily administered without having to train healthcare workers.
The DCGI on Thursday had also given conditional market approval to the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for use in the adult population.