Bharat Biotech inks pact with Precisa Medicamentos for Covaxin supplies to Brazil

Hyderabad, Jan 12 (PTI): Bharat Biotechhas signed anagreement with Precisa Medicamentos to supply its COVID-19vaccine Covaxin to Brazil.

A team from Precisa Medicamentos visited the BharatBiotech facility last week to discuss potential exportpossibilities of the vaccine, the indigenous antidote for thekiller virus, the company said in a release.

The Brazilian Ambassador to India Andr Aranha Corra doLago expressed keen interest on behalf of his governmenttowards procuring the vaccine and in principle, it wasunderstood between both parties that supplies of Covaxin to beprioritized for the public market through a direct procurementby the Brazilian government, it said.

Supplies to the private market would be based uponreceipt of market authorization from ANVISA, the Brazilianregulatory authority.

''Covaxin is an innovation and a perfect example of novelproduct development from India.

Our goal for all vaccines developed at Bharat Biotech isto provide global access to populations that need it the most.

Covaxin has generated excellent safety data with robustimmune responses to multiple viral proteins that persist.

We are happy to note that vaccines innovated in India areable to address the public health needs of Brazil,'' KrishnaElla, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, said.

After the technical visit to Bharat Biotech's GenomeValley facility here, the pharmaceutical director of PrecisaMedicamentos, Emanuela Medrades, said ''We identified highlytechnological, scientific and sanitary control levels.

There were also excellent outcomes in clinical trials,which will be published soon.

Bharat Biotech has exceeded our expectations,demonstrating quality and safety at the level of the largestvaccine suppliers in the world.'' The Phase III human clinical trials of Covaxin beganmid-November and are currently ongoing in about 26,000volunteers across India.

Covaxin, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by BharatBiotech, has been developed in collaboration with the IndianCouncil of Medical Research andthe National Institute ofVirology.

The inactivated vaccine has been developed andmanufactured in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3)bio-containment facility, one of its kind in the world.

The vaccine is presented in multi dose vials and can bestored at 2-8C.