Phase 2 Trials Begin for India’s First Intranasal Vaccine Against Covid-19

At Prakhar hospital in Kanpur, phase 2 trials of India’s first intranasal vaccine against Covid, which is being developed by Bharat Biotech in conjunction with Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, have begun.

Intranasal vaccination studies against Covid are being conducted in Kanpur, the state’s only center.

As many as 30 volunteers including doctors, their family members and others have administered the first dose of the intranasal vaccine.

Over the following next few days, another 20 patients will receive the vaccination. After 28 days, the participants will receive the second dosage of the vaccine.

All of the participants who received the nasal vaccination were over the age of 18.

Dr. J.S. Kushwaha, the principal investigator for the intranasal Covid vaccine, noted that the doses of the vaccine given to healthy participants in this phase of the experiment were well tolerated, with no major side effects recorded. All of the volunteers are being watched.

The vaccination was given to the volunteers by Dr. Kushwaha, who claimed, “A volunteer was given two drops of the intranasal vaccine in each nostril. After a five-minute pause, two additional drops were given in the same manner. Each participant received a total of eight vaccination drops in this manner. Before being permitted to go home, the volunteer was watched for over an hour for any reaction.”

Those who received vaccinations will now be required to report after 28 days, and the process will be repeated.

He also stated that saliva and blood samples would be taken prior to the second injection of the intranasal vaccine in order to investigate immunogenicity.

“The intranasal vaccine is dropped into a person’s nostril and gradually slips into the respiratory tract; the dosage is repeated after 28 days, just like Covaxin, which is administered twice in the same time period, and the vaccine is designed to neutralise the virus in the nostril itself and prevent it from penetrating deep into the respiratory tract,” he explained.