Covaxin by Bharat Biotech doesn’t just protect against the original COVID-19 virus but its new-found strains too

Adding another feather in its cap, the home-grown indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine by Bharat Biotech has claimed that the vials of its vaccine can effectively mitigate the threat of the new, mutated, and much infectious COVID-19 UK strain. Bharat Biotech on Tuesday took to Twitter to announce its findings, along with a link to its research paper.

“Covaxin effectively neutralises UK variants of SARS-COV-2 reducing the possibility of mutant virus escape,” tweeted the Hyderabad based company.

A preprint review by bioRxiv, a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences, supported the findings. The archive is operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, not-for-profit research and educational institution in New York.

Apex body ICMR also gave its seal of approval to the vaccine’s efficacy suggesting that the Make in India initiative had been a resounding success. 

“COVAXIN developed by @BharatBiotech with @ICMRDELHI has equivalent immunogenicity against the UK-variant & circulating strains of SARS-COV-2 in India.@icmr_niv is the first in the world to culture the UK variant.” tweeted ICMR. 

Bharat Biotech conducted a plaque reduction neutralisation test (PRNT50) study, wherein it collected blood sera from the 26 individuals who had received Covaxin. After collecting the samples, it tested them against the new UK strain as well as another strain of the virus that the company had tested before.

“Our study evidently highlighted comparable neutralization activity of vaccinated individuals’ sera against variant as well as heterologous SARS-CoV-2 strains. Importantly, sera from the vaccine recipients could neutralise the UK-variant strains discounting the uncertainty around potential escape,” stated the pre-print findings.

Reported by TFI earlier, Covaxin has even been applauded by The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and best-known medical journals, which said that the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech has led to enhanced immune response.

However, a few politicians like Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh, Akhilesh Yadav and a few media houses have been casting doubts over the efficacy of the vaccine and spreading lies about it. The misinformation campaign by a section of media and the politicians had led to scepticism amongst the public.

Also reported by TFI previously, the news of a man dying, who was a part of the phase III trials of Bharat Biotech vaccine was also blown out of proportion when the autopsy report confirmed that he died of cardiorespiratory issues, not the COVID-19 vaccine if he was even given one.

Read more: Died after the poisoning, not due to the vaccine shot: Man’s death being used by propagandists to discredit Indian vaccine

Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief and former CM of Uttar Pradesh, had called the two COVID-19 vaccines “BJP’s vaccine”. He also denied the existence of the pandemic and said, ‘Where is the pandemic?”

However, by playing on the front foot and releasing the preprint review, Bharat Biotech has sent the signal to its detractors that it would not be bogged down. Surely, the peer review is still left but the initial signs have been encouraging and there is no reason that anyone should be pessimistic about the success of the vaccine.

As the ‘pharmacy of the world’, India already supplies more than 50 per cent of the world’s vaccines and the Narendra Modi government is working in an overdrive mode to deliver the COVID-19 vaccines to its neighbours as well as other diplomatically friendly countries. The success of Covaxin might even help India expand its clout in the West and emerge as the worthy proprietor of the ‘Jagat Guru’ tag.