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The nasal vaccine for COVID-19 is based on technology developed at Washington University in St. Louis and is now available in the US, Europe and Japan. The university has licensed the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize its own COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, Europe, and Japan to Ocugen Inc., a US-based biotechnology company. Vaccines Cell therapy and vaccines.
Nasal vaccines are considered more protective against the virus than current injectable vaccines, which help prevent severe illness and death, especially as new highly contagious subspecies continue to spread. , does little to prevent infection. The advantage of the nasal vaccine is that it can strengthen the immunity of the nose and upper respiratory tract, where the virus enters the body, and completely prevent infection.
Ocugen plans to work closely with US government agencies tasked with pandemic preparedness and response to initiate clinical trials and manufacture an intranasal vaccine. The company is also interested in the potential of the nasal vaccine as a universal booster dose, regardless of prior COVID-19 vaccination history.
Dr. Dedrick Carter, Vice President for Innovation and Chief Commercial Officer at the University of Washington, said: “The licensing of nasal vaccine technology underscores the culture of innovation we are developing at the University of Washington. We are dedicated to making a difference to improve the health and lives of people in our communities and around the world.”
The investigational nasal vaccine was developed by University of Washington scientists David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Radiation Oncology and Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine, of Molecular Co-developed by Microbiology and Pathology. & Immunology, with members of their lab. They began working together in his early 2020s when the virus that causes COVID-19 first spread like wildfire around the world.
The University of Washington nasal vaccine technology was licensed by him to Bharat Biotech International Limited in 2020 for development in India and certain parts of the world. In September this year, Indian health officials approved an emergency vaccine for the country, making his intranasal vaccine for COVID-19 the first in the world to be approved.