Ocugen’s COVID-19 Vaccine Co-Development Partner, Bharat Biotech shares Phase 3 Interim Results of COVAXIN, Demonstrates Efficacy of 81%

• Data from 25,800 participants in Phase 3 trial in India, received vaccine or placebo in a 1:1 ratio showed that the vaccine candidate was well tolerated and demonstrated 81% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior infection after the second dose.
  
  
• Clinical trial to continue through to final analysis at 130 confirmed cases in order to gather further data and to evaluate the efficacy of COVAXIN in additional secondary study endpoints.
  

MALVERN, Pa., March 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocugen, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN), 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, today announced that its co-development partner, Bharat Biotech, announced the results of the first interim analysis of its Phase 3 study of COVAXIN, a whole virion inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate. COVAXIN demonstrated a vaccine efficacy of 81%.

“We are thrilled with the interim efficacy results of Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 trial of COVAXIN in India. These results, which in part suggest significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging UK variant, represent an additional step towards outlining the regulatory pathway for EUA and approval in the United States. COVAXIN, a whole virion based vaccine candidate, is designed to fill a significant unmet need in our national arsenal of vaccines against COVID-19,” said Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Ocugen.

“Today’s results from the interim analysis of Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 trial of COVAXIN mark a milestone in the development of another critical vaccine option for the US market. COVAXIN has been shown to induce immune responses against multiple protein antigens of the virus potentially reducing the possibility of mutant virus escape. This breadth of immune responses has been demonstrated by ability of antibodies induced by COVAXIN to neutralize the UK variant of SARS-Cov-2,” said Dr. Bruce Forrest, member of the vaccine scientific advisory board of Ocugen.

Interim Phase 3 Results as Reported by Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 clinical trial enrolled 25,800 participants between 18-91 years of age, including 2,433 over the age of 60 and 4,500 with comorbidities. The primary endpoint of the Phase 3 clinical trial is based on the first occurrence of PCR-confirmed symptomatic (mild, moderate or severe) COVID-19 with onset at least 14 days after the second study vaccination in serologically negative (to SARS-CoV-2) adult participants at baseline.