Bharat Biotech has inked a licensing agreement with the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis for a novel chimpanzee adenovirus, single dose intranasal 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 in St Louis University's Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit and Bharat Biotech, upon obtaining the required regulatory approval, will pursue further stages of clinical trials in India and undertake large scale manufacture of the vaccine at its GMP facility located in Genome Valley.
The company aims to scale this vaccine to one billion doses, translating to an equal number of individuals vaccinated receiving a single-dose regimen.
An intranasal vaccine will be simple to administer and also reduce the use of medical consumables such as needles, syringes, among others, significantly impacting the overall cost of a vaccination drive.