US biotech firm Ocugen gets Covaxin rights for Mexico

The Mexican authorities have made conquering the COVID-19 pandemic a major priority, said Ocugen Inc co-founder and chief executive officer Dr Shankar Musunuri, adding that they met Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, in Delhi.

CR Sukumar

April 18, 2022 / 19:46 IST

File image of a vial of Covaxin vaccine

US biotechnology firm Ocugen Inc has entered into a revised agreement with the Indian vaccine innovator Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) to expand the US firm’s exclusive territory of commercialisation of Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine of the Indian vaccine maker, to Mexico.

The amended agreement is for the co-development, supply, and commercialisation of Covaxin, providing Ocugen Inc with the commercialisation rights on Covaxin for all of North America, according to a joint press statement on April 18. Ocugen Inc currently has rights on Covaxin for the United States and Canada.

The Mexican authorities have made conquering the COVID-19 pandemic a major priority, said Ocugen Inc co-founder and chief executive officer Dr Shankar Musunuri, adding that they met Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, in Delhi.

“Covaxin is currently under review by COFEPRIS (Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios) for emergency use among children between 2 and 18 years of age, and Ocugen is prepared to collaborate with the public health community to help their efforts,” said Dr Shankar Musunuri, viewing that Covaxin can be an ideal vaccination option for Mexico at this stage of the pandemic.

Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr Krishna Ella said, “Covaxin is a safe and efficacious inactivated vaccine for all age groups as evident from its data from the global introduction.” Ella said the Indian vaccine innovator was fully supportive of team Ocugen in its endeavour to expedite technology transfer activities towards commercial-scale manufacturing of Covaxin in North America.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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