Hyderabad: Bharat biotech is developing a one drop COVID-19 intranasal vaccine ‘CoroFlu’ using a proven safety platform.
The vaccine, ‘CoroFLu’ is built on a flu vaccine “backbone”, which has already proved to be safe and well tolerant when given to humans, in Phase I and II of the clinical trials.
The medicine is being developed by Bharat Biotech is an international collaboration with virologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the vaccine companies FluGen
CoroFlu will build on the backbone of FluGen’s flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR. It is based on an invention by UW-Madison virologists and FluGen co-founders Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Gabriele Neumann.
M2SR is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu. Kawaoka’s lab will insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, into M2SR so that the new vaccine will also induce immunity against the coronavirus.
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,”
