Take a Look at Ocugen’s Work on Eye Diseases, Not Just Their Vaccine Partnership

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For years, investors have known Ocugen (NASDAQ:OCGN) as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in severe eye diseases. However, in 2020, OCGN stock holders had to adapt to a company in flux.

A close-up of someone's eye

Source: Shutterstock

Of course, the big change that year was the onset of the novel coronavirus. And with that, Ocugen and many other medical companies had to shift their focuses and business models.

Thus, Ocugen has been working diligently with partner Bharat Biotech to advance the development of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate known as Covaxin.

But please don’t pigeonhole Ocugen as “just another vaccine company.” Sure, the company and its collaborator Bharat are making progress in this area — but Ocugen certainly hasn’t abandoned its commitment to develop novel treatments to combat blindness.

OCGN Stock at a Glance

Is OCGN stock up or down? The answer, as usual, depends on your time frame and perspective.

On a multi-month time horizon, the stock is definitely up. Believe it or not in December of 2020, Ocugen shares were trading at just 30 cents apiece.

That turned out to be one heck of a bargain. In February of 2021, OCGN stock rocketed up to the moon — or at least to a 52-week high of $18.77 on Feb. 8.

The share price gradually declined as low as $5.24 over the next couple of months, but there was another moon shot coming. On May 3, Ocugen shares reached $16.20.

Unfortunately, another drop ensued as OCGN stock fell back to below $8 over the next few trading sessions. Still, at least we know that the stock is capable of huge moves, and the next one could happen at any moment.

Battling Variant Strains

I’ll certainly make the case that Ocugen isn’t only a Covid-19 vaccine maker. However, the company and its partner Bharat Biotech are making impressive progress in developing Covaxin.

In 2021, the conversation is often focused on combating against the variant strains of Covid-19. So, some vaccine makers are working towards developing vaccines for this purpose.

Fortunately, clinical results indicate that Covaxin could be effective against not just one, but three Covid-19 variant strains.

In a new study, scientists found that Covaxin demonstrated potential effectiveness against the Brazil variant of Covid-19, known as B.1.128.2. This is particularly significant as the the Brazil variant contains the E484K mutation that was found in New York.

Previous studies suggested that Covaxin was effective against the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, and the Indian double mutant variant, known as B.1.617.

But of course, Covaxin could also be important in fighting the most common form of the virus. In interim results of a Phase-3 clinical trial, Covaxin demonstrated 78% efficacy overall against Covid-19.

The vaccine also exhibited 100% efficacy in severe cases of Covid-19, which is extremely encouraging.

Focusing on Eye Diseases

Now, let’s turn our attention away from Covid-19 for a moment and focus on high-need eye conditions.

OCU200, which is a transferrin-tumstatin fusion protein, is Ocugen’s product candidate to treat a range of ocular conditions. These conditions include diabetic macular edema (DME), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and wet age-related macular degeneration (Wet-AMD).

In a preclinical trial involving mice as the subjects, it was found that OCU200 inhibited cell proliferation, cell invasion and tube formation by endothelial cells.

As a result, the study suggested that OCU200 is a potential therapeutic treatment for DME, DR and wet-AMD.

In light of these positive results, Ocugen co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board Shankar Musunuri asserted that OCU200 offers the potential to “benefit all patients who do not respond to current therapies.”

The Takeaway

If you said that Ocugen is battling diseases in two different fields, you’d be 100% right about that.

And really, there’s nothing wrong with that. OCGN stock holders should be proud that Ocugen is making progress and advancing life-changing science, for the benefit of all stakeholders.

On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2021/05/wage-war-against-sight-threatening-diseases-with-ocgn-stock/.

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