HYDERABAD:
Bharat Biotech
has sought permission from the Indian drug regulator to conduct clinical trials on a
vaccine
cocktail comprising of its inactivated, injectable vaccine
Covaxin and its under development intra-nasal vaccine BBV154, chairman and MD Dr
Krishna Ella
said on Thursday.
Ella said they are looking at various permutations and combinations for the heterologous vaccine trials — Covaxin as the first dose and
intranasal
as the
second dose
, two doses of just
nasal
vaccine as well as first dose of the nasal vaccine followed by Covaxin as the second dose.
“We have applied for heterologous clinical trials and are waiting for permission. When it comes, we are seeing it as a big game-changer because we will be seeing a totally different immune response that can last longer,” Ella said at the two-day 18th Annual Capital Markets Conference (CAPAM2021) organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
Pointing out that nasal vaccines will be critical for stopping
Covid-19
transmission, he said: “If you look at literature of late, nasal is going to be a key factor for control of disease...”...” Ella said the data from the intranasal vaccine would be available after about two to two and a half months. He added that a key advantage was that it would be very easy to produce and scale up and the company can easily produce 100 million doses per month.