Bharat Biotech credited ICMR, NIV as Covaxin co-inventors after missing them initially: Modi government

Initially, when Bharat Biotech filed the patent application, it bore only its name in the application. As soon as the government and ICMR came to know about it, 'we questioned them' as the co-ownership, co-inventor names were not there, Union health minister J P Nadda said.

New Delhi: Union health minister J P Nadda on Friday said that Bharat Biotech initially did not mention ICMR and NIV as co-inventors in the patent application for Covaxin and the application was corrected after objections were raised by the government.

Covaxin, which was widely used as a Covid vaccine, was jointly developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute of Virology, and Bharat Biotech International Ltd.

Nadda, speaking during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, also said that ICMR has received around Rs 172 crore as royalty for Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.

Responding to Trinamool Congress member Sougata Roy, who had asked whether the government took any punitive action against the company for not mentioning the names of ICMR and NIV in the patent application, the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister gave a detailed reply.

There was a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICMR, NIV and Bharat Biotech for the development of Covaxin, he said.

Initially, when Bharat Biotech filed the patent application, it bore only its name in the application. As soon as the government and ICMR came to know about it, "we questioned them" as the co-ownership, co-inventor names were not there, Nadda said.

After the objection was raised, the minister said, the application was corrected.

Nadda said that it was informed by Bharat Biotech that the inclusion of ICMR-NIV was inadvertently missed and it has now filed a correction in the patents office.

There were two parts to the development of Covaxin. The first was to isolate the virus, study the challenges and related issues, and these were done by ICMR and NIV. Then, the development of the vaccine was done by Bharat Biotech, which spent around Rs 60 crore to that end, Nadda said.

The ICMR spent around Rs 35 crore towards the development of Covaxin, including Rs 20 crore towards phase 3 clinical trial which involved funding of 25 sites for screening and recruiting 25,800 participants.

"Usefulness of Covaxin to the nation and the world has been well acknowledged beyond doubt. Upon its development by BBIL with technical assistance of ICMR, the government was the recipient of the most doses of the vaccine and it used the same in the national interest.

"This was India's first WHO-approved indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, and was distributed and protected the lives of people during the pandemic," Nadda said.