Genome Valley is claimed to be India’s first organised cluster for life sciences R&D and clean manufacturing activities, with state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities in the form of industrial / knowledge parks, special economic zones (SEZs), multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities.
While Bharat Biotech has five crore doses of Covaxin readily available in vials and over 20 crore doses of Covaxin drug substance, Biological E has 20 crore doses of Corbevax in filled form.
Biological E's protein subunit Covid vaccine Corbevax was licensed from Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and has won approval in India for use in those aged 5 years and older. It has also been cleared to be used as a heterologous booster. The government is yet to begin the rollout of the vaccine for the age group 5-11.
According to respective company sources, Biological E is holding 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax while Bharat Biotech is sitting on a stockpile of 50 million doses of Covaxin.
Both Bharat Biotech and Biological E have been sitting on huge stocks of unutilised Covid-19 vaccines due to a slump in demand as the number of cases receded and Covid was no longer perceived as a serious threat.
According to rating firm ICRA, BE reported revenues of Rs 2,556.8 crore in FY22, largely driven by the government's Rs 1,500-crore contract order for supplying Corbevax vaccine against Covid.
The company’s patented flagship product is an experimental treatment for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD) and the company has other products in the pipeline for the treatment of incurable diseases affecting humanity. The product is allogenic, administered by a surgical procedure and is patented in India and abroad. The company intends to file for a first in human trial for the product within a year in consultation with the CDSCO and the US FDA.
The experts will review its data for its use as a standalone vaccine and will also weigh its benefits as a booster shot and take a decision accordingly, said people cited above. The experts will also evaluate the data of Corbevax which got approval by India's drug regulator as a booster dose for adults who have received both doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.
India's first indigenously developed RBD protein subunit vaccine, Biological E's Corbevax, is currently being used to inoculate children in the age group of 12 to 14 years.
"It is necessary to quickly initiate the process of recognition of the Corbevax vaccine and its certificate by other countries while Biological E continues to pursue WHO's EUL (emergency use listing ) for it," the document mentioned.
Biological E had presented interim safety and immunogenicity data of phase 2/3 clinical trials conducted on participants aged 5 to 18 years.
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