Hyderabad-based vaccine maker says not including ICMR in original patent application for Covaxin was ‘inadvertent error’ & ‘confidential agreement between them was not accessible’.
Health ministry points at shortfall in supply of 3 vaccines, for Japanese Encephalitis, Hepatitis B & rotavirus. It also sought reason for delay in letter to Bharat Biotech.
Speaking at International Science Festival in Bhopal, Krishna Ella said iNCOVACC will be launched by 26 Jan and a vaccine for lumpy skin disease, too, will be launched next month.
Official sources clarifeid that masks were not mandatory yet. Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra can also continue provided it adhered to Covid protocols, they said.
Medical news site STAT had cited internal documents to allege that Bharat Biotech had taken ‘questionable’ steps under political pressure to speed up development of Covaxin.
Bharat Biotech is believed to have assured Government of India that it will ‘quickly’ reply to WHO about ‘deficiencies found in its manufacturing’ during an inspection last month.
ICMR and Bharat Biotech developed Covaxin together, and MoS Health Bharati Pawar says in written reply that the research body spent Rs 35 crore on its development.
Study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, was published on preprint portal medRxiv Saturday. It was conducted by Bharat Biotech and ICMR, which co-developed the vaccine.
The collusion between the new class of bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and trade union bosses perpetuates itself partly because of the short-run benefits and partly because they see no way out of the system, wrote author MH Mody in 1980.
IAF is firming up plans to revamp airlift capabilities with medium transport aircraft that will be assembled in India & serve as its main workhorse. Embraer is leading contender as of now.
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