Intranasal vaccine trial begins in Kanpur.
The Phase 2 trial of India’s first intranasal vaccine against COVID, being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has begun at Prakhar Hospital in Kanpur. Kanpur is the only center in the state where the intranasal vaccine against COVID is being tested.
30 volunteers, including doctors, their family members and others, have given the first dose of the intranasal vaccine.
In the next few days, 20 more people will be vaccinated. The volunteers will be given a second dose of the vaccine after 28 days.
The volunteers who received the nasal vaccine are adults.
Principal Investigator of Intranasal COVID Vaccine, Dr JS Kushwaha said that the vaccine dose administered to healthy volunteers in this phase of the trial has been well tolerated and no serious adverse events have occurred. All volunteers are under observation.
Dr. Kushwaha, who vaccinated the volunteers, said, “Two drops of intranasal vaccine were instilled in each nostril of a volunteer. Two more drops were administered in the same manner after an interval of five minutes. Thus a total of eight vaccines were administered to each individual. The volunteers were then observed for any reactions for over an hour before being allowed to go home.”
Administered vaccines will now report after 28 days and the same process will be repeated.
He also said that saliva and blood samples would be collected to study immunogenicity before administering the intranasal vaccine for the second time.
“The intranasal vaccine is dropped into a person’s nostrils and is slowly flushed into the respiratory tract. The dose of this vaccine is repeated after 28 days, like Covaxin, which is administered twice over the same time period. The vaccine is designed to neutralize the virus in the nostril itself and prevent it from going deeper into the respiratory tract,” he said.
.