“There was not as much excitement as we would have thought.”
— Diamond, Molecular Microbiologist
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
India has a nasal vaccine for Covid, though its effectiveness is unknown, and it was designed in the US, reported politico.com.
The researchers — Michael Diamond and David Curiel — both professors at the Washington University School of Medicine, pitched their nasal vaccine to the big US pharmaceutical companies first. But “there was not as much excitement as we would have thought,” Diamond, a molecular microbiologist, told Future Pulse.
In the end, they licensed iNCOVACC to Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, which received emergency approval last month to give it to adults in India.
Nasal vaccines could also be more appealing to people who didn’t get vaccinated because they fear needles or to parents hesitant to vaccinate their children
Diamond and Curiel, a radiation oncologist, said they created it with the needs of the developing world in mind, given the lack of ultracold freezers needed to store mRNA vaccines.
A vaccine that prevents coronavirus spread would better protect people if a deadlier variant emerges, added Karin Bok, the acting deputy director of pandemic preparedness and emergency response at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center.
Nasal vaccines could also be more appealing to people who didn’t get vaccinated because they fear needles or to parents hesitant to vaccinate their children.
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