ICMR will get royalty from the sale of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin

What is the News?

Recently, the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) has confirmed that it will receive royalty payments from the sale of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

Development of Covaxin:

• Firstly, Covaxin has been indigenously developed under the Public-Private Partnership by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR.Edit
• Secondly, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is signed between the Bharat Biotech and ICMR. Under the MoU, Bharat Biotech will provide the following.
  • Pay the royalty payments to the ICMR from the net sales on Covaxin.
  • Prioritise in-country supplies.
  • Intellectual property governing the use of Covaxin will be shared
  • The name of the ICMR-National Institute of Virology(NIV) will be printed on the vaccine boxes.

Note:

• Covishield constitutes over 90% of the country’s vaccine supply so far. It has been developed from the partnership between Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
• On the other hand, Covaxin is almost entirely indigenous. Furthermore, it is yet to priced higher than Covishield.

Source: The Hindu