Ocugen Inc (NASDAQ:OCGN) is currently trading at $12.05 with a volume of over 52M shares.
Bharat Biotech’s home grown vaccine “COVAXIN” is facing strong resistance in India. As per an article published earlier today by Reuters, an opposition-ruled Indian state had asked the federal government to halt the supply of a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine until its efficacy could be proven in an ongoing late-stage trial“. Covaxin is an advanced stage whole-virion inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Bharat Biotech had earlier mentioned that the efficacy data from the late-stage clinical trial on nearly 26,000 volunteers will be out by next month. This had led to nation wide criticism from epidemiologists that it was approved too hastily for emergency use.
Will this affect the recent agreement with Ocugen Inc (NASDAQ:OCGN) ? Ocugen had recently announced that it has executed a definitive agreement with India’s Bharat Biotech to co-develop, supply and commercialize the latter’s Covaxin in the U.S. As per the agreement, Ocugen is now vested with the U.S. rights to the vaccine candidate. The company will be responsible for clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization for the U.S. market.
OCGN rallied as high as $18.77 on the news about its agreement with Covaxin on the optimism that the sales in the U.S. will be shared between Bharat Biotech and Ocugen in a 55-45 ratio.
