In a major setback, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford’s joint trial for the nasal-spray version of the Nonreplicating viral vector vaccine against Covid-19 did not yield desired protection, reported Reuters on Tuesday.
The University of Oxford said, “An antibody response in the respiratory mucous membranes was seen in only a minority of participants in the trial, which was in the first of usually three phases of clinical testing.”
The human trial, funded by AstraZeneca in Britain, enrolled 30 previously unvaccinated participants as well as 12 volunteers, who had previously received a standard two-dose vaccine course by injection.
“The nasal spray did not perform as well in this study as we had hoped,” Sandy Douglas, chief investigator of the trial at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute was quoted as saying. “We believe that delivery of vaccines to the nose and lungs remains a promising approach, but this study suggests there are likely to be challenges in making nasal sprays a reliable option,” she added.
However, the Oxford University statement noted that no serious adverse events or safety concerns were reported during the trial.
Meanwhile, India’s health ministry approved indigenously-made Bharat Biotech’s iNCOVACC (BBV154) intranasal vaccine for restricted use in emergencies for those 18 and older. Bharat Biotech has said its BBV154 vaccine is proven to be safe and generated an immune response in clinical trials on about 4,000 volunteers. The world’s first intranasal Covid-19 vaccine is yet to be marketed.
Scientists have termed the mucosal vaccines to be a “game changer” for the Covid-19 pandemic due to the intranasal preventive prompting an immune response where the virus first enters the body and likely prevent even mild infections and blocking transmission, something current Covid-19 shots are unable to do.
“This pandemic has been dragging on because new variants continue to emerge that are capable of causing a lot of infections and transmission among people who were already vaccinated,” said David T. Curiel, a professor at Washington University. “A nasal vaccine may be what we need to finally break the cycle of transmission,” Curiel said in a statement.
In China too, the government approved CanSino Biologics last month for an inhaled version of its Covid-19 vaccine. CanSino has said studies indicated that its vaccine, delivered via a nebuliser device, can induce strong immunity to effectively contain infection.
However, while China’s mucosal vaccine is inhaled through the nose and mouth, India’s intranasal coronavirus vaccine is administered as drops in the nose.
(With inputs from Reuters, PTI)
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