Bharat Biotech on Monday said its intranasal coronavirus vaccine has proven to be safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic in the Phase-3 clinical trials.

The vaccine, designated BBV154, was tested on 3,100 subjects across 14 locations in India. The booster jab of BBV154 was tested on 875 subjects who had received the two doses of Covid-19 vaccines used in India.

The nasal delivery system has been designed to be cost-effective for low and middle-income countries, the vaccine maker said in a press release.

“Evaluation was also carried out for the ability of BBV154 to elicit long term memory T and B cell responses against the ancestral and omicron variants,” it said.

T and B cells remove infected and invading pathogens.

The vaccine can be stored at a temperature between 2 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius.

Bharat Biotech Joint Managing Director Suchitra K Ella said that the results were yet another achievement for the multidisciplinary teams at the company.

“If approved, this intranasal vaccine will make it easier to deploy in mass immunisation campaigns with an easy to administer formulation and delivery device,” she said. “Vectored vaccines also enable faster development of targeted vaccines in response to emerging variants of concern.”

The Centre had partially funded product development and clinical trials through the Department of Biotechnology’s Covid-19 Suraksha programme, reported PTI.