India and China approve jab-free COVID vaccines
Questions remain about nasal, inhaled versions
NEW DELHI – India and China have cleared a new approach in COVID-19 vaccination – two needle-free options, one a squirt in the nose and the other inhaled through the mouth.
Regulators in India authorized Bharat Biotech’s nasal version on Tuesday as an option for people who haven’t yet been vaccinated.
“This step will further strengthen our collective fight against the pandemic,” Indian health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Twitter.
It’s not clear how well the nasal version works. Bharat didn’t immediately release results of its studies or say how soon the new option will roll out.
Cansino Biologics announced Sunday that Chinese regulators have approved an inhaled version of the company’s injected COVID-19 vaccine to be used as a booster dose. The company pointed to preliminary results of studies suggesting the inhaled version revved up immune protection after one puff. It’s not clear if that translated to improved effectiveness.
Shot-free versions of vaccines are being explored as a strategy to improve protection against infection, with particular interest in nasal vaccines designed to fend off the virus right where it enters the body. Nearly a dozen possible candidates are in various stages of testing globally, and Cansino’s is one of two inhaled vaccine candidates being developed, according to the World Health Organization.
India’s nasal vaccine was developed
by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and later licensed to Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech. The company conducted two trials, giving two doses of the vaccine to 3,100 previously unvaccinated volunteers and as a booster to around 875 volunteers who had received two shots of other COVID-19 vaccines.
Bharat’s nasal spray uses a harmless chimpanzee cold virus to deliver a copy of the coronavirus spike protein to the lining of the nose.
Cansino’s inhaled booster uses a harmless human cold virus. The inhaled vaccine was largely tested as a booster for people who had received another Chinese company’s COVID-19 shots.
Ashley St. John, an immunologist at the DUKE-NUS Medical School in Singapore, said scientists are pursuing nasal and inhaled COVID-19 vaccine options
because the immune system has specialized tools to protect different sites in our body in slightly different ways.
“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,” said Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist and professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education Research in Pune city.
The advantages that vaccines sprayed through the mouth have will depend on the size of droplets, Bal added. Large droplets would train defenses in the mouth and parts of the throat, while smaller droplets are expected to travel deeper and reach the lungs.
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