Centre allows Bharat Biotech to begin commercial exports of Covaxin

Paving the way for commercial exports of Covid-19 vaccines to start from India, the Centre allowed Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech to start commercial exports of Covaxin on Tuesday, according to sources in the know. 

A few days back, its peer Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII), was allowed to export to the WHO-led vaccine initiative COVAX.

Bharat Biotech did not wish to comment on the matter. SII, too, did not confirm if it got a nod to start commercial bilateral exports from the Indian government.

Bharat Biotech made 55 million doses of Covaxin in October, and aims to make 80 million doses in December. SII is making 220 million doses of Covishield a month now.

SII has received central nod to export 5 million doses of Covishield to COVAX. In October, the government allowed SII to export the vaccine to Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh under the Vaccine Maitri programme (as a grant).

SII is also set to export the Novavax vaccine (Covovax) to Indonesia this week. The company did not clarify if this would be considered as commercial exports.

Meanwhile, Covaxin, the first indigenous Covid vaccine to be approved in India, had got the emergency use listing (EUL) from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on November 3. It is not a part of the COVAX initiative yet.  

Bharat Biotech has claimed that Covaxin has proven to neutralise the Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, Kappa, Beta and Delta variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Covaxin exports, however, have run into controversies earlier. India had restricted Covid-19 vaccine exports around April-May when the second wave raised a local demand for vaccines.  

In June 2021, Brazilian lawmakers started investigating a $324-million deal with Bharat Biotech to supply 20 million doses of Covaxin around the issue of pricing. Bharat Biotech said on June 30 that it has not received any payment from the Brazilian health ministry.

On July 23, the company said it terminated the MoU it entered with Precisa Medicamentos and Envixia Pharmaceuticals LL.C for its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin for Brazilian market.