Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech to begin intranasal COVID-19 vaccine trials: Harsh Vardhan
19-October-2020

Pune based Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are likely to conduct late-stage clinical trials of intranasal coronavirus vaccine once they receive regulatory approval, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. The clinical trials of nasal coronavirus vaccine in India are expected to start in a few months.

There are three vaccine candidates against Covid-19 being tested on humans in India, however, there is no intranasal vaccine candidate under trial currently.

Union Ministet Harsha Vardhan said the late-stage trial generally involves thousands of participants, sometimes 30,000 to 40,000.

Hyderabad-based drugs and vaccine research and manufacturing company has entered into an agreement with Washington University and St. Louis University for the trials of the nasal vaccine candidate.

Vardhan also informed about the development of another intranasal vaccine by the US-based biotech company Codagenix along with Serum Institute of India.

"Codagenix is collaborating with the Serum Institute of India to develop CDX-005, which is the company's intranasal, live-attenuated vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2. The preclinical animal studies have been successfully completed, and Codagenix expects to initiate a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial in the UK by the end of 2020," he said.

CDX-005 is a single dose intranasal vaccine made with a live attenuated version of the virus. Of the vaccines currently in Phase 3 trials, all are administered by injection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).