Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 24

Though no country has instituted a vaccine passport as yet, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Monday assured Bharat Biotech full support from the Indian diplomatic establishment in securing approvals of WHO and important countries as it might become a necessary travel document in future.

Bharat Biotech has already submitted 90 per cent of the documentation required for emergency use listing (EUL) to WHO and the remaining is expected to be submitted by next month.

There was a flutter after Bharat Biotech’s vaccine was not included in the WHO’s first list of vaccines for EUL. It is felt that these authorised vaccines will be mandatory in future for air travel between countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has clarified that countries have their own requirements for approval, which in most cases involves travel by carrying a negative RT-PCR report. A majority of countries are yet to adopt vaccine certificates as a travel document as important as the visa.

During a meeting with Bharat Biotech team lead by its MD V. Krishna Mohan with senior officers of the Ministry of Health, Department of Biotechnology and MEA.

On the issue of WHO’s authorisation for EUL, Krishna Mohan was confident of getting WHO’s EUL given its experience of getting its other vaccines prequalified by WHO. 

Bharat Biotech informed the officials that it is in regular touch with regulatory authorities in these countries and are confident about the robustness of their dossier, as they have data for much longer duration – for antibody persistence after six months as well as eight months. It is one of the few companies that have published papers on all four Covid virus variants.  

Covaxin had already received regulatory approval from 11 countries.  There was also interest from 11 other companies in 7 countries for technology transfer and production of Covaxin. 

Simultaneously, Bharat Biotech is in the final stages of submission of required documents for Covaxin’s regulatory approvals in Brazil and Hungary, having held consultations with officials of both countries. Further, BBIL is also in the final stages of negotiations with FDA of the USA for conducting small-scale phase-III clinical trials in the US.