On Sept. 15, 2021, Oragenics announced the initiation of a study to evaluate the immunogenicity and viral load reduction impact of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate in a hamster challenge study. The study provided data for several vaccine formulations, using adjuvants specific for both intranasal and intramuscular routes of administration.

An assessment of cross-neutralization titers against the Wuhan, Beta and Delta variants of COVID-19 and reduction in the viral load of the Wuhan challenge virus were used to establish the most promising formulations to advance to human clinical studies.