Bharat Biotech claims its Covid 19 vaccine Covaxin will work against UK strain

New Delhi, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech said on Monday that its vaccine is efficient against the mutant strain of novel coronavirus found in the UK while announcing that its data would be made public within a week.

CMD Dr Krishna Ella, addressing a virtual press conference, said: "We have taken 3-4 strains and studied it. It will come in publication on Medrevix on January 10. In a week's time, our confirmative data would come."

Covaxin, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech, is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). The inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) bio-containment facility.

India's drug regulator has allowed restricted use of Covaxin in an emergency situation.

While the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), has 70.42 per cent efficacy, the indigenous vaccine from Bharat Biotech does not have efficacy details because the trials are underway.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had said that the data available to date showed that Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is "safe" for administration.

During the press conference, Ella hailed the decision of the Indian drug regulator to approve Covaxin for emergency restricted use and termed it as a giant leap for innovation and novel product development in India.

Meanwhile, he lashed out at cynics who raised concerns over the transparency of approval procedures taken to authorise Covaxin, saying that the firm's Covid vaccine candidate is "no way" inferior to Pfizer in terms of transparency.

"People are talking about backlash on Indian companies. That is not done for us. We are the only Indian firm to have published five articles on the Covid-19 vaccine process," Ella claimed.

He also clarified in the conference that he and his family has no involvement with any political party. "Since the politicization over our vaccine has started, I want to clarify that neither I, nor my other family members are involved and working with any political party," Ella stated.