Shares of Ocugen Inc. OCGN,
31.0% shot up in the premarket trade on Wednesday, after the biopharmaceutical company said its joint development partner, Bharat Biotech, released a tentative analysis of its phase 3 trial of its COVID vaccine candidate -19, COVAXIN, which demonstrated 81% efficacy. The Bharat phase 3 trial in India enrolled 25,800 participants aged 18 to 91 years and the first interim analysis is based on 43 cases. A review of the safety database showed serious, serious, and medically treated adverse events at low and balanced levels between the vaccinated and placebo groups. “These results, which in part suggest significant immunogenicity against the emerging UK variant, represent an additional step towards the outline of the regulatory pathway for US and approval in the United States,” said Shankar Musunuri, chief executive of ‘Ocugen. “COVAXIN, a complete virion-based vaccine candidate, is designed to meet a significant unmet need in our national arsenal of COVID-19 vaccines.” Shares of Ocugen have skyrocketed 3,071.5% in the last three months, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology IBB ETF,
attacked 6.8% and the S&P 500 SPX,
has gained 5.6%.