OCGN stock may be basing as of January 15, 2022, after the company announced its vaccine candidate was effective against delta and omicron.
COVAXIN™ (BBV152) Booster Shown to Neutralize Both Omicron and Delta Variants of SARS-CoV-2
On January 12, 2022, Ocugen, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics and vaccines, and its partner, Bharat Biotech, a global leader in vaccine innovation and developer of vaccines for infectious diseases, announced results from a study conducted at Emory University demonstrating that sera from subjects who received a booster dose of candidate vaccine COVAXIN™ (BBV152) six months after getting a primary two-dose series of COVAXIN™ (BBV152) neutralized the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta variants. Earlier studies demonstrated the neutralizing potential of COVAXIN™ (BBV152) against SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern Alpha, Beta, Delta, Zeta and Kappa.
The study will be published on the pre-print server, medRXiv, in the coming days.
Sera samples from individuals who received a booster of COVAXIN™ (BBV152) were observed to be effective in neutralizing Omicron and Delta variants on a live virus neutralization assay. The neutralization activity of COVAXIN™-boosted sera was comparable to what has been observed in mRNA vaccine-boosted sera against the Omicron variant. More than 90% of all individuals boosted with COVAXIN™ (BBV152) showed neutralizing antibodies. All participants received an initial two-dose schedule of COVAXIN™ (BBV152) at Day 0 and Day 28.
“The global impact of Omicron shows us that the fight against COVID-19 continues, and we’re encouraged that these data demonstrate the value of COVAXIN™ as a primary and booster vaccine,” said Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Ocugen, Inc. “These results show how a broad-spectrum vaccine has the potential ability to address ever-shifting public health challenges such as new variants and mutations.”
“As the dominant COVID-19 variant throughout the world, Omicron poses a serious public health concern,” said Mehul Suthar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Emory Vaccine Center and who led the laboratory analysis. “Data from this preliminary analysis show individuals receiving a booster dose of COVAXIN™ have a significant immune response to both the Omicron and Delta variants. These findings suggest that a booster dose has the potential to reduce disease severity and hospitalizations.”
Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said, “We are in a continuous state of innovation and product development for COVAXIN™. The positive neutralization responses against the Omicron and Delta variants, validates our hypothesis of a multi epitope vaccine generating both humoral and cell mediated immune responses. Our goals of developing a global vaccine against COVID-19 have been achieved with the use of COVAXIN™ as a universal vaccine for adults and children.”
COVAXIN™ is formulated uniquely such that the same dosage can be administered to adults and children alike. COVAXIN™ is a ready-to-use, liquid vaccine, stored at 2 – 8°C, with 12 months shelf life and multi-dose vial policy. The same doses of vaccine can also be used for two-dose primary immunization in adults and children and for booster dose vaccinations, making it truly a universal vaccine. COVAXIN™ is not currently authorized or approved for use as a primary or booster dose in the United States.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of COVAXIN™ (BBV152) against the Omicron variant, Ocugen contracted with the Emory Vaccine Center (Atlanta, GA) to test human immune sera obtained from participants (n=13) in an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04471519). Sera was collected 28-days post booster – six months following the primary two-dose series. Each sera was tested in a neutralization assay. Following three doses, the FRNT50 geometric mean titers (GMTs) of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant measured in the samples was 75, compared to 480 against the Delta variant and 706 against the vaccine strain, D614G.
This study was sponsored by Ocugen, Inc. and Ocugen’s partner, Bharat Biotech, provided the sera of the subjects from the Phase 2 study.
COVAXIN™ (BBV152) is an investigational vaccine candidate product in the U.S, currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization (EUA) for children 2-18 years of age. Additionally, an Investigational New Drug application (IND) is being discussed with the agency to support an immunobridging study among U.S. participants. It was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV). COVAXIN™ (BBV152) is a highly purified and inactivated vaccine that is manufactured using a vero cell manufacturing platform.
With more than 180 million doses having been administered to adults and children outside the U.S., COVAXIN™ (BBV152) is currently authorized under emergency use in more than 20 countries, and emergency use authorization is in process in more than 60 other countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently added COVAXIN™ (BBV152) to its list of vaccines authorized for emergency use. And, as many as 110 countries have agreed to mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificates with India that includes vaccination using COVAXIN™ (BBV152). The trade name, COVAXIN™, has not been evaluated by the FDA.
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 U.S. and Canadian markets.
📺 Ocugen Stock Analysis | Pharmaceutical Stocks to Buy Now? | OCGN Stock
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MZyu2BM1Hs[/embedyt]📈 OCGN Stock Technical Analysis
Both the long and short-term trends are negative. It is better to avoid buying stocks with negative trends. OCGN is one of the better-performing stocks in the Biotechnology industry, it outperforms 94% of 634 stocks in the same industry.
There is a support zone ranging from 4.01 to 4.05. This zone is formed by a combination of multiple trend lines in multiple time frames.
There is resistance at 10.30 from a horizontal line in the daily time frame.
Although the technical rating is bad, OCGN does present a nice setup opportunity. The stock has a setup rating of 5 out of 10. Prices have been consolidating lately and the volatility has been reduced. There is very little resistance above the current price. Click here to sign up for email alerts on OCGN stock to be alerted when its setup rating improves.
