New Delhi — India and China have approved a new COVID-19 immunization strategy involving two needle-free options, one administered through nasal squirt and the other inhaled through the mouth.
Tuesday, Indian regulators approved Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine as an option for those who have not yet been immunized.
“This action will significantly enhance our collaborative fight against the pandemic,” tweeted the Indian minister of health, Mansukh Mandaviya.
It is unclear how effective the nasal form is. Bharat did not immediately reveal the results of its study or provide a timeline for the introduction of the new option.
Sunday, CanSino Biologics reported that Chinese authorities have approved the company’s inhaled COVID-19 vaccine for use as a booster dose. The company cited preliminary study results indicating that one puff of the inhaled version boosted immune protection. It’s unclear if this increased effectiveness, or when the inhaled booster will become available.
New COVID boosters will target Omicron at 3:46 a.m.
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Even when increasingly contagious forms of the coronavirus spread, 19 vaccinations administered as shots have saved millions of lives and continue to provide robust protection against severe disease and death.
But shot-free vaccines are being investigated as a means of enhancing infection protection, with a particular focus on nasal vaccines meant to combat the virus at the point of entry. According to the World Health Organization, almost a dozen potential candidates are in various phases of testing worldwide, and CanSino’s is one of two inhalation vaccine candidates being developed.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis created the nasal vaccine for India, which was then licensed to Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech. The business completed two clinical trials, administering two doses of the vaccine to 3,100 previously unvaccinated volunteers and administering the vaccine as a booster to approximately 875 volunteers who had previously received two doses of other COVID-19 vaccinations.
Bharat is also seeking approval to use the nasal spray as a booster for the two-thirds of the Indian population that has already been immunized.
Bharat’s nasal spray employs a harmless chimpanzee cold virus to deliver a replica of the coronavirus spike protein to the lining of the nose, so preparing the body to respond to the genuine virus.
CanSino’s inhaled booster vaccine employs a comparable harmless human cold virus; it is the company’s single-dose injection vaccine in aerosol form. The inhaled vaccination was primarily evaluated as a booster for those who had previously received COVID-19 injections from another Chinese business.
The first aerosolized COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) is on display at the CanSino Biologics (CanSinoBIO) stand at the 5th Hainan International Health Industry Expo in Haikou, Hainan Province, China on November 12, 2021. The inhaled vaccination was licensed for use as a booster in September 2022. Chen Yuancai / VCG / Getty Images
Scientists are researching nasal and inhalation COVID-19 vaccination alternatives, according to immunologist Ashley St. John of the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. The immune system has specialized tools to guard different parts of the body in somewhat different ways.
Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist and professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education Research in Pune, explained, “The advantage of nasal vaccines is that they may eliminate the virus before it can establish itself in the lungs and proliferate.”
Bal said that the advantages of mouth-sprayed vaccines will depend on the size of the spray’s individual droplets. Smaller droplets are anticipated to penetrate deeper and reach the lungs.
Dr. Michael Diamond of Washington University in St. Louis, who helped develop the vaccine licensed to Bharat, noted that it may be simpler to give a nasal spray than a shot, particularly in low-income nations.
In October 2021, the Russian Ministry of Health authorized early trials of a nasal variant of Sputnik V with 500 volunteers, however the current status of these trials and the availability of the vaccine are unknown.
Vaccination rates in India have declined in recent months, but the number of detected cases has plateaued. 67% of the population, or around 940 million people, have had the first two doses, while only 15% have received the third booster.