Chennai: Bharat Biotech has entered into a licensing agreement with the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis (WashU).
The deal has been struck for developing, conducting clinical trials, manufacturing and distributing a novel chimp-adenovirus, single dose intranasal vaccine candidate for Covid-19.
Bharat Biotech owns the rights to distribute the vaccine in all markets except for the US, Japan and Europe, the company announced on Wednesday.
The phase-I trials, which will check the safety profile of the vaccine candidate in humans, will take place in the US university’s vaccine and treatment evaluation unit in St. Louis.
Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director (MD), Bharat Biotech, said, “We are proud to collaborate on this innovative vaccine. We envision that we will scale this vaccine to one billion doses. Individuals can be vaccinated by a single dose regimen. An intranasal vaccine will not only be simple to administer but also reduce the use of medical consumables such as needles, syringes, etc, significantly impacting the overall cost of a vaccination drive.”
He added: “Our experience in viral vaccines, manufacturing capabilities, and distribution continue to be our strong suit in ensuring safe, efficacious, and affordable vaccines. It is prudent for Bharat Biotech to be involved in diverse but tenable projects to provide a much-needed vaccine against Covid-19 that reaches all citizens of the world.”