Shares of Ocugen Inc. OCGN,
rose 31.0% in pre-trade on Wednesday, after the biopharmaceutical company announced that its co-development partner Bharat Biotech had released an interim analysis of its Phase 3 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, COVAXIN, which showed the effectiveness of 81%. Bharat’s Phase 3 trial in India enrolled 25,800 participants aged 18 to 91, and the first interim analysis is based on 43 cases. A review of the safety database showed that severe, severe and medically attended side effects occurred at low levels and were balanced between vaccine and placebo groups. “These results, which in part indicate a significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging UK variant, are a further step towards the regulatory pathway for the EUA and approval in the United States,” said Shankar Musunuri, CEO of Ocugen , said. “COVAXIN, a whole virion-based vaccine candidate, is designed to fill a significant unmet need in our national arsenal of COVID-19 vaccines.” Ocugen’s share has soared 3,071.5% over the past three months, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF IBB,
achieved 6.8% and the S&P 500 SPX,
achieved 5.6%.
