Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin's shelf life extended to 12 months: Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech on Monday said that its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin now had a shelf life of 12 months from the date of manufacture after the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) recently approved the extension.

“This approval of shelf-life extension is based on the availability of additional stability data, which was submitted to CDSCO. With the shelf-life extension, hospitals can now utilise the stock, which was nearing the expiry and avoid vaccine wastage,” the company said.

Moreover, an opened vial of Covaxin can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius for up to 28 days and is not required to be discarded immediately in a day or at the end of the immunisation session.

The multi-dose vial policy saves money for procurement agencies by reducing the cold chain logistics and management thereby reducing the carbon footprint, costs related to open vial wastage, cold chain distribution, cold chain storage and biomedical waste disposal among others.