Ocugen On Track to Submit EUA Application to US FDA for its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Ocugen, Inc. recently confirmed its plan to submit its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application for COVAXIN to the US FDA in June.

“Since we have been in discussions with the FDA since late last year, we do not believe that the FDA’s recently revised guidance regarding EUAs raises any concerns about our ability to submit the EUA for COVAXIN as planned, which is currently in process and which we expect to submit to the FDA in June. We believe the FDA’s new guidance confirms that Ocugen continues to meet all criteria for submission of an EUA. Once the EUA application has been submitted, Ocugen intends to commence pre-biologics license application (BLA) discussions with the FDA,” said Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Ocugen.

“FDA’s guidance refers specifically to vaccines based on the spike protein. COVAXIN is a unique yet traditional vaccine using an inactivated version of the whole virus with a novel adjuvant that provides a broadly protective immune response beyond the spike protein, offering potential effectiveness against multiple existing and emerging variants and reducing the possibility of mutant virus escape,” added Dr. Bruce Forrest, Acting Chief Medical Officer and member of the vaccine scientific advisory board of Ocugen.

COVAXIN, India’s COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech, is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV). COVAXIN is a highly purified and inactivated vaccine that is manufactured using a vero cell manufacturing platform with an excellent safety track record of more than 300 million doses supplied. Based on a traditional vaccine platform that has a long-established safety profile, COVAXIN continues to show strong results in all the studies conducted to date, including a vaccine efficacy rate of 78% overall efficacy and 100% in severe COVID-19 disease, including hospitalizations, in second interim results of Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 clinical trial.

In addition to generating strong immune response against multiple antigens, COVAXIN has been shown to generate memory T cell responses, for its multiple epitopes, indicating longevity and a rapid antibody response to future infections. With published data demonstrating a safety profile superior to published safety data from separate studies for several other vaccines, COVAXIN is packaged in multi-dose vials that can be stored at 2°C-8°C.

COVAXIN studies show potential effectiveness against three key variants of SARS-CoV-2. Scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology, using an in-vitro plaque reduction neutralization assay, have found that COVAXIN-vaccinated sera effectively neutralized the Brazil variant of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.128.2, the UK variant, B.1.1.7, as well as the Indian double mutant variant, B.1.617. These studies suggest that COVAXIN vaccination may be effective against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Ocugen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and developing a vaccine to save lives from COVID-19. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug – “one to many” and our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and diabetic retinopathy. We are co-developing Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in the US market. For more information, visit www.ocugen.com.