HomeNewsIndiaCentre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

Centre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

Out of the 45 lakh doses, the city-based vaccine maker will be supplying over eight lakh to some of the friendly countries such as Mauritius, Philippines and Myanmar, free of cost as good will gesture sources added.

January 19, 2021 / 12:00 IST
Story continues below Advertisement
Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was granted restricted emegency use approval in 'clinical trial mode' on January 2.
Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was granted restricted emegency use approval in 'clinical trial mode' on January 2.

Bharat Biotech has secured a fresh Letter of Comfort from the Centre for another 45 lakh doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, sources said.

Out of the 45 lakh doses, the city-based vaccine maker will be supplying over eight lakh to some of the friendly countries such as Mauritius, Philippines and Myanmar, free of cost as good will gesture sources added.

Story continues below Advertisement

"The company was given a fresh letter of comfort recently for supplying another 45 lakh doses of Covaxin. The doses will be dispatched as when the Ministry places orders with the company," sources told PTI.

After having received the government purchase order for 55lakh doses, BharatBiotechshipped the first batch of vaccines (each vial containing 20 doses) to Gannavaram (Vijayawada), Guwahati, Patna, Delhi, Kurukshetra, Bangalore, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Chennai and Lucknow, it said.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

View more

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.
View more
+ Show