Who discovered Covaxin? ICMR’s name missing from patent, uproar ensues

New Delhi: A big controversy has arisen over Covaxin, the first corona vaccine made in India. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Hyderabad-based company Bharat Biotech (Bharat Biotech International Limited) jointly made it. It was said that both have equal rights over it. However, in the patent applications filed by BBIL in India, America and Europe, only Bharat Biotech scientists have been mentioned as its real creators. ICMR’s name is not mentioned anywhere.

New controversy on covaxine

The newspaper ‘The Hindu’ has seen these patent applications. In these, Deepak Kumar and Krishna Murthy Ella, who are the heads of BBIL, have been described as the inventors of the vaccine. This is completely different from the statement of the Union Health Ministry, which said that both ICMR and BBIL have the rights to Covaxin. In July 2021, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in Rajya Sabha had sought information about the agreement between ICMR and BBIL. Then Minister of State for Health Bharti Pawar had said that ICMR would provide the sample of the virus, and BBIL would make the vaccine. BBIL will also be given the right to sell it for two years.

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Claim to a patent

The minister had clearly said that ‘both ICMR and BBIL will have intellectual property rights on this product. In return, ICMR will get 5 percent of the sales as royalty. ICMR says that it did not give money to BBIL to make Covaxin. However, one of its institutes, ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, spent money on the development of Covaxin. ICMR also paid for the third phase trial of Covaxin, in which it was tested on 25800 people.

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what is the whole matter

In total, ICMR spent Rs 35 crore for Covaxin. By January 2022, ICMR had received Rs 171 crore as royalty from Covaxin. This matter is also serious about Covaxin because ICMR, a government institution, also contributed to its development. If the patent is in the name of BBIL alone, then only a private company will benefit from the discovery made with public money. This matter is now getting more complicated, and it remains to be seen what happens next.