Regulators in India and China have approved two variations of inhaled COVID-19 vaccines, the first of their kind.
India’s Bharat Biotech has developed a vaccine that is inhaled through the nose, while China’s CanSino has developed a booster vaccine that is inhaled through the mouth, according to CBS News. The needle-free options offer several advantages over traditional vaccines not only because they are cheaper and more convenient but also because they present a less invasive alternative to those skeptical of needles. The nasal vaccine may also help combat COVID-19 before it takes hold in the body.
“The advantage with nasal vaccines is that it may get rid of the virus before it has a chance to establish itself in the lungs and replicate,” Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist and professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education Research in Pune, told the outlet.
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Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine was developed by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, but it was licensed to the Indian manufacturer, according to the report. The vaccine delivers coronavirus spike proteins to the lining of the nose through a harmless chimpanzee cold virus. The company has so far completed a test on 4,000 volunteers, claiming there were no adverse reactions so far, company sources told the Times of India. However, they have not yet released the full results, including the efficacy rate.
CanSino’s booster vaccine has clinical trials to show its efficacy, published in the Lancet, according to a statement from the company. A preprint study published in July showed that subjects who used the inhaled booster after two traditional Sinovac shots developed more omicron-neutralizing antibodies than those who received three doses of the shot; 92.5% of subjects developed omicron-neutralizing antibodies four weeks after receiving the inhaled booster.
Several prominent U.S. scientists have urged President Joe Biden to devote more resources to developing an inhaled vaccine, saying it may be needed to combat the omicron variant effectively.
“Once [omicron] gets in through our nasal mucosa, or our oral mucosa, upper airway. That’s game over [for] infection,” Scripps Research executive vice president Eric Topol said on a podcast with Biden’s former COVID-19 response coordinator Andy Slavitt, according to Fortune. “The best way … to induce the mucosal immunity right at the upper airway is with either nasal or oral vaccines.”
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Russia’s health ministry announced it had developed a nasal form of its Sputnik vaccine and was beginning trials in October of last year, but the results and progress of the trial are unknown, according to the outlet.
