NEW DELHI: Bharat Biotech on Friday announced that a unique intranasal vaccine, CoroFlu, is under development for COVID-19 and human clinical trials could begin by the fall of 2020. An international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the vaccine company FluGen, along with Bharat Biotech, has begun the development and testing of the vaccine.
Sharing details about CoroFlu collaboration, Dr Raches Ella, Head of Business Development, Bharat Biotech said, "Bharat Biotech will manufacture the vaccine, conduct clinical trials and prepare to produce almost 300 million doses of vaccine for global distribution. Under the collaboration agreement, FluGen will transfer its existing manufacturing processes to Bharat Biotech to enable the company to scale up production and produce the vaccine for clinical trials."
Refinement of the CoroFlu vaccine concept and testing in lab animal models at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is expected to take three to six months. Bharat Biotech will then begin production scale-up for safety and efficacy testing in humans.
CoroFlu is based on the influenza vaccine and will provide immunity against the H2N2 strain of seasonal influenza. "Of late, we have more seasonal flu problems which is also getting into pandemic. We are attempting to solve both the problems together with a new approach," he said.