Updated June 3rd, 2021 at 19:31 IST
Bharat Biotech, Ocugen extend agreement to develop & commercialize COVAXIN in Canada
Bharat Biotech on Thursday said it has extended the COVAXIN co-development, supply, and commercialisation agreement with US biotech Ocugen to include Canada
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COVAXIN manufacturer Bharat Biotech on Thursday said it has extended the vaccine co-development, supply, and commercialisation agreement with US biotech company Ocugen to include Canada as well. The NASDAQ-listed Ocugen has the rights to commercialise the indigenous Coronavirus vaccine - COVAXIN in the United States.
Both the companies said as they work towards getting approval for emergency use in America, they will simultaneously seek authorisation for emergency application in Canada.
As per the agreement, Ocugen will make an upfront payment and milestone payment to Bharat Biotech upon first commercial sale in Canada and also share the profit from sales of COVAXIN in Canada. Similar to the US profit share arrangement, Ocugen will retain 45% of the profits from the vaccine sale in Canada.
“With its potential effectiveness against multiple existing and emerging variants, we believe that COVAXIN is an important vaccine for everyone, including children, based on its unique yet traditional vaccine platform," said Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Biotech.
"We are diligently working with Ocugen to bring COVAXIN to the US market and now to the Canadian market,” Ella added,
"We believe COVAXIN has the potential to play a key role in saving lives from COVID-19 in the US and Canada, as well as across the globe, due to the strong immune response it generates against multiple antigens,” said Dr Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Ocugen.
All about COVAXIN
COVAXIN, India's COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech, is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). COVAXIN is a highly purified and inactivated vaccine that is manufactured using a Vero cell manufacturing platform. This platform has an excellent safety track record of more than 300 million doses of various vaccines supplied. Based on a traditional vaccine platform that has a long-established safety profile, COVAXIN continues to show strong results in all the studies conducted to date including a vaccine efficacy rate of 78% overall efficacy and 100% in severe COVID-19 disease, including hospitalizations, in the second interim results of Bharat Biotech’s Phase 3 clinical trial.
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Published June 3rd, 2021 at 19:31 IST
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