Bharat Biotech, which is developing an indigenous vaccine in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research, has entered into an agreement with Washington University and St. Louis University for the trials of the nasal vaccine candidate.

Serum Institute of India, which is conducting the phase 2/3 clinical trial of Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, has an agreement with Codagenix for its nasal vaccine.

Vaccination

Nasal vaccines are shots which can be administered through the nose thereby requiring no doctor or nurse for the administration of this.

Answering a question on the inclusivity of the vaccines presently under trial, Harsh Vardhan said participants in the vaccine trial include young and old people as well. Serum Institute's phase 3 trial includes people up to 99 years old. The lower age limit 1s 12 for most of the ongoing trials, the minister informed.

Bharat Biotech entered into an agreement with Washington University's School of Medicine

On his Sunday Samvaad on Sunday, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, "Bharat Biotech has entered into an agreement with Washington University's School of Medicine under which the company will conduct trials, produce and market an intranasal vaccine for the Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus infection."

He then went on to add that Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech will soon begin the late-stage trials of a nasal coronavirus vaccine candidate in India. Harsh Vardhan said the late-stage trial generally involves thousands of participants, sometimes 30,000 to 40,000.

Of the vaccines currently in Phase 3 trials, all are administered by injection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A day after, Dr Reddy's got approval for the clinical trial of Russia's Sputnik V, it has been learnt that Mankind pharma has collaborated with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for sale and distribution of Sputnik V in India.

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