10 New Facts You Need to Know About COVAXIN

COVAXIN® – India’s First Indigenous COVID-19 Vaccine, is a story of the success of Indian Science and leadership in vaccine research, development, and manufacturing. The vaccine was developed in less than 11 months during the Pandemic time.

The COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech was developed under a Public-Private Partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV). Further, the indigenous, inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) high containment facility.

Check out the 10 Facts about Bharat Biotech COVAXIN, manufacturing and quality process

1. As of date all batches of COVAXIN® are manufactured and released only from our manufacturing facilities at Genome Valley Hyderabad, which are fully audited and approved by regulatory authorities, hence we wish to put to rest any concerns on the quality of COVAXIN®,     
2. Every batch of COVAXIN® is subjected to more than 200 quality control tests at our facilities, followed by submission samples to Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) Government of India, only based on approval/release by CDL, are batches released commercially,

3. Since early June, manufacturing of COVAXIN® has commenced at our sites at Malur, Karnataka, and Ankleshwar, Gujarat, prior to which engineering batches were also executed to study equipment functionality. Products manufactured from these facilities will be available for supplies during September. This is based on our 120-day timeline for manufacturing, testing, release, regulatory approvals, and distribution,    
4. Vaccine manufacturing, testing, and release at Bharat Biotech follow validated, stringent GMP processes which were established over 20 years, with several billion doses of vaccines supplied within India and globally,
5. Since vaccines are administered to healthy individuals, safety is always our vital, primary criteria and we have an uncompromising policy on safety, and quality, whatsoever. This is evident from the excellent safety contours of COVAXIN® with an impressive supply of ~ 70 million doses to date. It is emblematic that Bharat Biotech has not sought Indemnity from the Government of India for any adverse events from COVAXIN®,   
6. The whole-virion Inactivated Vero Cell vaccines (COVAXIN® technology platform) are highly complex to manufacture as the critical ingredient is based on live viruses which require highly sophisticated, multiple level containment and purification methods. Such extensive, high standards of purification naturally lead to significant process losses and low yields resulting in a highly purified and safe vaccine,
7. The SARS COV2 strains provided under material transfer agreements to Bharat Biotech are also readily available at the ICMR-NIV and is accessible to any organization that wishes to manufacture a similar COVID-19 vaccine,  
8. Vaccinology, vaccine manufacturing, testing, and release is a complex multifactorial science involving inputs from more than 30 scientific and technological disciplines. This is evident from the fact that since the start of the pandemic only 2 vaccine companies have been able to supply COVID-19 vaccines to the Government of India,  
9. Bharat biotech is the only company to develop a vaccine indigenously in India and manufacture it large scale. It has accomplished this in a matter of 15 months, with 10 publications and global recognition for India as an innovator and product developer. COVAXIN® is the only vaccine to have demonstrated efficacy against the delta variant in phase III human clinical trials,
10. In recent time, fake news, unwarranted false and misleading narratives which result in unintended consequences of creating panic in our population, vaccine hesitancy, is slowing down, extending our country’s timelines to return to normalcy and restoration of livelihoods. This is despite having demonstrated excellent efficacy and promise against even the latest Delta Plus Variants.