Bharat Biotech adds medical panel ICMR as co-owner of Covaxin patent

Bharat Biotech on Saturday stated that it has added the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as a co-owner of the Covid vaccine patent.

The Hyderabad-based vaccine maker, Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL), had not included ICMR in its original patent filing for Covaxin, which had led to a row. The company, in a statement, said that the omission was “unintentional".

It added, “Bharat Biotech’s covid vaccine application was filed in the above circumstances and since BBIL-ICMR agreement copy, being a confidential document, was not accessible. Hence ICMR was not included in the original application.”

The company further said, though this was “purely unintentional”, such mistakes are “not uncommon for the patent office therefore Patent Law provides provisions to rectify such mistakes”.

The vaccine maker added it has “great respect for ICMR and is thankful to the agency for their continuous support on various projects”.

“Therefore as soon as this inadvertent mistake was noticed, BBIL has already started the process to rectify it by including ICMR as co-owner of the patent applications for Covid-19 vaccine,” the statement said.

The company noted that necessary legal documents are being prepared and will be filed in the patent office as soon as they are ready and signed.

ICMR is a premier medical research body under the Union Health Ministry. ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, and Bharat Biotech jointly developed Covaxin following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in April 2020.