MUMBAI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- India's biotech company Bharat Biotech entered into licensing agreement with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for a novel chimp-adenovirus, single dose intranasal vaccine for COVID-19, a statement by the company said on Wednesday.

As per the pact, Bharat Biotech owns the rights to distribute the vaccine in all markets except the United States, Japan and Europe.

While the Phase I trials will take place in St. Louis University, Bharat Biotech will pursue further stages of clinical trials in India and undertake large scale manufacture of the vaccine at its Hyderabad facility, 569 km North of Bengaluru.

Expressing pride in collaborating on this proposed innovative vaccine, Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said they will scale this vaccine to one billion doses.

"An effective nasal dose not only protects against COVID-19, but it also prevents the spread of the disease by offering another kind of immunity that occurs primarily in the cells that line the nose and throat. Most other vaccine candidates currently under development can't do that," said Dr. David T. Curiel, MD, Ph.D., Director of Biologic Therapeutics Center and Professor of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Dr. Curiel is also the interim chief executive officer of Precision Virologics, a vaccine company developing advanced generation adenoviral vaccines.

This vaccine expands Bharat Biotech's portfolio of vaccines that are currently being developed and are in various stages of clinical development including its own COVID-19 vaccine which is currently in Phase II human clinical trials in India.

With over 140 global patents, Bharat Biotech has delivered four billion doses of vaccines worldwide through its product portfolio of more than 16 vaccines and four bio-therapeutics.

India ranked second after the United States for the total number of COVID-19 cases among all countries, with 968,377 current active cases with 90,020 deaths reported so far.