On Oct. 4, 2022, Washington University in St. Louis announced it had licensed the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize its proprietary COVID-19 nasal vaccine in the United States, Europe and Japan to Ocugen. A nasal vaccine is thought to provide greater protection against the virus than current injectable vaccines, which help prevent severe illness and death but do little to prevent infections.

The advantage of the nasal vaccine is that it delivers a boost to immunity in the nose and upper respiratory tract, right where the virus enters the body, thereby potentially preventing infections altogether.