Ready to share Covaxin formula with firms: Govt
Under pressure from several states to increase the production of the two vaccines available in India, the Centre on Thursday said it is ready to allow private companies to manufacture the country’s indigenous vaccine, Covaxin.
Covaxin is jointly developed by ICMR and Bharat Biotech and is currently being produced by Bharat Biotech. The government has now engaged five Public Sector Undertakings to help increase the production of Covaxin. Since under this vaccine, live virus is inactivated, any company making this vaccine must have laboratories that meet all the requirements of BioSafety Lab level 3.
The Covishield vaccine is developed by Oxford University and produced by AstraZenca and Serum Institute of India. The patent for the vaccine is not with India.
“While people are welcome
to make Covaxin there is only one problem with the technology platform. The company making this vaccine must have Bio-Safety Lab level 3 to ensure bio safety of the virus. We give an
open invitation to companies who want to produce as per our norms. Even Bharat Biotech has welcomed our decision to open up production to other players and it has also reached out to a few companies. The Centre will assist in all ways to increase the capacity of vaccines,” said Dr V.K. Paul, member NitiAayog, who is part of Centre’s major policy decisions on health.
The government has been facing criticism due to shortage of vaccines, particularly
Covaxin, that was given full permission at a later stage compared to Covishield. Many states have suggested to the government to open up its production to other companies as well as to increase supplies.
Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had earlier urged PM Narendra Modi to direct Bharat Biotech and ICMR-NIV to transfer the Covaxin manufacturing technology and provide the viral strain to all those who are capable of manufacturing the vaccine and ramp up production as the current rate of vaccines output was slow and did not cater to the country's requirement.
“It may take several months to get all vaccinated at this pace. Please explore the possibility of involving all such production firms and enable them with the technology, intellectual property rights to deliver the vaccine as quickly and as affordable as possible. Anyone who can manufacture or is interested in manufacturing the vaccine should be encouraged to do so in the larger public interest,” the Andhra CM had said.