Covaxin 65% efficient against Delta variant, 75 million doses supplied so far: Bharat Biotech

“Supplied 75 million doses of Covaxin, more to be supplied in August. Our vaccine has 65% efficacy against Delta," said Suchitra Ella, Bharat Biotech's joint managing director.

Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech on Thursday said that the company has supplied 75 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine so far and more were in the pipeline for August. Suchitra Ella, joint managing director of the company, said that sample Covaxin doses from the company’s second manufacturing site at Gujarat’s Ankleshwar are also ready to be sent for quality tests.

Bharat Biotech committed last month to supply 500 million doses of Covaxin to the Union government. (Representational image)

Ella also said that Covaxin has shown 65% efficacy against the B.1.617.2 or the Delta variant of Covid-19. “Supplied 75 million doses of Covaxin, more to be supplied in August. Our vaccine has 65% efficacy against Delta. Our second site is at Ankleshwar-based manufacturing plant. Sample batches are ready, it will go to CDL Kasauli this month for quality testing,” news agency ANI on Thursday quoted Ella as saying.

The remarks from the Bharat Biotech official came after the company had committed last month to supply 500 million doses of Covaxin to the Union government for the country’s immunisation program. Ella, who was addressing a virtual conference held by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), had said that Covaxin was being produced at the company’s four facilities in four cities namely Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Ankaleshwar.

“In a nutshell if I have to tell you, this is the journey of Covaxin from April 2020 until June 2021. And it is still ongoing as we continue to manufacture, taking a commitment of more than 50 crore (500 million) of doses to be submitted to the government of India for its immunisation programme” news agency PTI quoted Ella as saying earlier on July 23.

Also, Union minister of state for health and family welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar informed the parliament that from January 16 to August 5, Bharat Biotech had supplied 68.2 million Covaxin doses to the Union government for the national Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Earlier in the day, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya met with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan. “Held a meeting with Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of @WHO We had a productive discussion on WHO’s approval of @BharatBiotech’s COVAXIN. @DoctorSoumya also appreciated India’s efforts for the containment of #COVID19,” Mandaviya said in a tweet.

According to the WHO, as of July 15, 2021, rolling data for the vaccine started on July 6 and the assessment of the vaccine has been ongoing. Meanwhile, the government informed the parliament that Bharat Biotech had submitted all documents to the WHO necessary for emergency use listing (EUL) as of July 9.