Bharat Biotech, a leading vaccine and biotherapeutics manufacturer, has entered into a licensing agreement with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, for a single-dose intranasal vaccine for coronavirus disease. (Covid-19).
Bharat Biotech owns the rights to distribute the vaccine in all markets except the United States, Japan and Europe, the company announced Wednesday.
Phase I trials, which will test the safety profile of the candidate vaccine in humans, will be carried out at the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit of the American University in St. Louis.
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Upon obtaining the required regulatory approval, Bharat Biotech will continue the clinical trial stages in the country and will undertake large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine at its GMP facility located in Genome Valley, Hyderabad.
“We are proud to collaborate on this innovative vaccine. We anticipate that we will scale this vaccine to one billion doses. People can be vaccinated with a single dose regimen. An intranasal vaccine will not only be easy to administer, but it will also reduce the use of medical consumables such as needles, syringes, etc., which will significantly affect the overall cost of a vaccination campaign, ”said Krishna Ella, President and CEO ( MD) from Bharat. Biotechnology.
“Our viral vaccine expertise, manufacturing and distribution capabilities continue to be our strength in ensuring safe, effective and affordable vaccines. It is prudent for Bharat Biotech to participate in diverse but sustainable projects to provide a much-needed vaccine against Covid-19 that reaches all citizens of the world, ”he added.
According to the company’s statement, this intranasal candidate vaccine has shown unprecedented levels of protection in mouse studies; for which the technology and data have recently been published in the scientific journal Cell and in an editorial in Nature, a British scientific weekly.
Dr. David T Curiel, Director of the Center for Biological Therapeutics and Professor of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Precision Virologics said in a statement: “The The ability to achieve effective immunization with a single nasal dose is a great advantage, as it offers a broader scope and easier administration. An effective nasal dose not only protects against Covid-19, but also prevents the spread of the disease by offering another type of immunity that occurs mainly in the cells that line the nose and throat. Most of the other candidate vaccines currently in development cannot do that. ”
The latest move expands Bharat Biotech’s portfolio of vaccines that are being developed and in various stages of clinical development, including Covaxin, which is in phase II human clinical trials stage in India.
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