ICMR role in making Covaxin underplayed by Bharat Biotech

Earlier in May this year, Bharat Biotech claimed that the ICMR did not contribute or do anything much for the development of Covaxin, India’s first indigenously Covid-19 vaccine, besides providing a virus strain from the National Institute of Virology in Pune. The Hyderabad-based pharma company also said that the ICMR had “assisted” with animal tests of Bharat Biotech’s vaccine candidates that actually made the development of Covaxin possible.

Both the claims of Bharat Biotech, one of India’s major pharma and vaccine giants, to put it charitably, are disingenuous, prove research into documents, and conversations with people in both the government-owned institutions and other sources.

During a panel discussion organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and private television channels in May 2021, Dr Suchitra Ella, a top official of Bharat Biotech, holding the position of joint managing director), however, did acknowledge that NIV and ICMR “collaborated” with the company for “animal studies” because private industry does not have access to such animals. But she denied on behalf of her company that there was “any technology transfer involved” from the NIV to Bharat Biotech.

Research shows that on the contrary, Bharat Biotech was completely dependent on the Indian Medical Research Council-National Institute of Virology, Pune, for animal testing of its candidate vaccines and all tweakings required in the vaccines to make them effective against the SARS-CoV2 virus.