Medilytix Bureau:
Bharat Biotech, maker of Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin is working on two other Covid vaccines across different technology platforms, informs the company. Bharat Biotech’s upcoming intranasal covid-19 vaccine, the first nasal vaccine, has already been given regulatory approval for phase 2/3 trials last year in August.
BBV154 is an intranasal replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus SARS-CoV-2 vectored vaccine. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has in-licensed technology from Washington University in St Louis, USA. “Covaxin has already proven that it can protect effectively against all variants including the deadly delta, apart from COVAXIN®, the company is also working on three other Covid vaccines across different technology platforms, including an intranasal vaccine that will prevent transmission,” a company spokesperson said.
The phase 1 clinical trial for the nasal vaccine has been completed for the 18-60 years age group. Bharat Biotech’s whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, Covaxin, is already a part of India’s covid-19 vaccination programme. Currently, the company is supplying 5-6 crores doses of Covaxin monthly.
“The capacity expansion has been implemented across multiple facilities in Hyderabad, Ankleshwar and Bangalore, to reach our goal of 1 billion doses/year. We are building one of the largest production capacities for inactivated viral vaccines worldwide. Currently, we are delivering 55-60 million doses each month, which will touch 70-80 million soon by February-March 2022,” the spokesperson said.