‘Inadvertent mistake,’ says Bharat Biotech on why it failed to credit ICMR in Covaxin patent filings

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited, the manufacturer of Covaxin, said on Saturday that it had made an “inadvertent mistake” in failing to credit the Indian Council of Medical Research as a “co-owner” in patent applications for India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine.

This came after The Hindu reported that the medical research body had not been acknowledged as co-inventors of the vaccine in patent-linked documents filed in India, the United States and Europe – despite the Union health ministry’s claims that the intellectual property rights to Covaxin were “jointly owned”.

In a statement, Bharat Biotech said that the Indian Council of Medical Research will be credited as a co-owner of Covaxin in fresh patent filings, the company clarified.

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“[Bharat Biotech] has great respect for ICMR [Indian Council of Medical Research] and is thankful to ICMR for their continuous support on various projects,” the company’s statement read. “Therefore, as soon as this inadvertent mistake was noticed, [Bharat Biotech] has already started the process to rectify it by including ICMR as co-owner of the patent applications for Covid-19 vaccine. Necessary legal documents are being prepared for it and [Bharat Biotech] will file those documents in the Patent...

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