Bharat Biotech’s pact with Ocugen for Covaxin expanded to Canada

Bharat Biotech has extended its agreement with biopharmaceutical manufacturer Ocugen Inc for exclusive co-development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights of Covaxin in Canada.

Ocugen already has the rights to commercialise Covaxin in the US and this agreement has now been amended to include Canada.

For the grant of the rights to commercialise Covaxin in Canada, Ocugen will be make an upfront payment and a milestone payment upon the first commercial sale in Canada to Bharat Biotech. This is in addition to sharing the profit from sales of Covaxin in Canada. Similar to the US profit share arrangement, Ocugen will retain 45% of the profits from the sales of Covaxin in Canada.

Bharat Biotech CMD Dr Krishna Ella said with its potential effectiveness against multiple existing and emerging variants, Covaxin is an important vaccine for everyone, including children, based on its unique yet traditional vaccine platform.

Shankar Musunuri, CEO and co-founder of Ocugen, said they were working towards submission of the emergency use application in the US and would simultaneously seek authorisation under interim order for emergency use in Canada. “We believe Covaxin has the potential to play a key role in saving lives from Covid-19 in the US and Canada as well as across the globe due to the strong immune response it generates against multiple antigens,” Musunuri said.

Covaxin studies have shown potential effectiveness against three key variants — the Brazil variant (B.1.128.2), the UK variant (B.1.1.7) as well as the India double mutant variant (B.1.617).

Covaxin is currently being administered under emergency use authorisations in 13 countries and applications for EUA are pending in 60 more countries. FE