On Wednesday, Hyderabad-headquartered Bharat Biotech announced that it will manufacture a billion doses of an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, in collaboration with the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri.
The vaccine is peculiar as it will be procured via nose, the initial infected area. Researchers claim the nasal route for vaccination has often seen a stronger immune response.
“The intranasal vaccine will not only protect against COVID-19, but also prevent the spread of the disease by offering another kind of immunity that occurs primarily in the cells that line the nose and throat,” said Dr David Curiel, Professor of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine.
The company said in a release that phase-I human trials of the vaccine will be conducted at the Treatment Evaluation Unit of Saint Louis University in the United States and Bharat Biotech is expected to undertake further stages of clinical trials in India.
The company has entered into a license agreement with the university for the novel chimp-adenovirus candidate, single-dose intranasal vaccine. Bharat Biotech will own the rights to distribute it in all markets except for the United States, Japan, and Europe.
The agreement is expected to help overcome distribution difficulties, shortage and high cost of vaccination. The vaccine will nullify the need to administer the vaccine shot.