Biotech company Ocugen signed an exclusive agreement with Washington University in St. Louis to develop, manufacture and sell technology developed at the school.
After drugmakers reformulated their COVID-19 vaccine recipes to better protect against surging omicron subvariants and with indicators that a COVID-19 shot will be as regular as flu shots, the race for nasal vaccines is on.
Research of intranasal vaccines is in its infancy stages, but National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, MD, said at a July White House summit that stakeholders should focus on nasal vaccines and universal vaccines.
With its partnership with Washington University, Ocugen said in a Sept. 28 news release it plans to seek regulatory approval for the product in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
"In recent months we have seen COVID-19 continue to spread — despite high levels of vaccination the U.S., Europe and Japan have achieved," Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, a Washington University professor who helped develop the technology, said in an Oct. 4 statement. "Because the vaccine can be delivered directly into the nose, it is specifically designed to block infection at the portal of virus entry, and we believe it may help prevent transmission as well as provide protection against new COVID-19 variants."