Covaxin, the first indegenious Covid-19 vaccine became a point of pride for make-in-India slogan at the outset of 2021.
There were some politics within Indian media circles and the reports stated that the permissions to jab are given to Covaxin without even the completion of required trials.
There were many suspicions surrounding this vaccine in the beginning.
When Covaxin was hastened for approval, there was a backlash on this make-in-India product.
“This is a very short-sighted way of doing things, and undermines the purpose of the Atmanirbharta campaign. True self-reliance means you have a globally competitive product, not just cost-wise, but quality-wise," says D Raghunandan, the director of Delhi Science Forum, a non-profit.
Gagandeep Kang, a microbiologist at CMC Vellore, also opined that the Indian drug regulator should have toiled to meet international standards, which meant that Covaxin shouldn’t have been approved without efficacy data.
But when Prime Minister Narendra Modi got vaccinated with Covaxin and other Chief Ministers like YS Jagan Mohan Reddy were also jabbed with the same, people gained ample confidence. All myths and suspicions among the people have gone with the wind after this.
The craze for Covaxin thus started and eventually it has become the hot favorite for many people either due to the celebrity endorsement or because of its scarcity when compared to the Serum Institute's Covishield.
But the first shock to the Covaxin manufacturers was when the Brazilian Drug Regulator published a report on its website on 30th March 2021 pointing out flaws in the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's vaccine.
The report stated that Bharat Biotech had skipped the important steps in ensuring the SARS COV 2 virus in the vaccine if completely killed or was not capable of multiplying in the human body. Based on this report Brazil suspended its order of 2 Crore doses of Covaxin from India.
Krishna Ella, the founder of Bharat Biotech claimed that the Brazilian authority's report is driven by sheer nationalism and the idea to keep an Indian vaccine out of the country.
After this, the latest is barring the people who had Covaxin from international travel as the vaccine is not yet listed by WHO. It is in fact the matter of time and shortly the approvals do come once Bharat Biotech submits the concern papers.
Amidst this bumpy ride, Covaxin is still standing up as a favorite for many in India while Covieshield of Serum Institute has also equally gained importance.
Bharat Biotech repeatedly stressed that, being an inactivated vaccine, a technology that had been deployed in several vaccines before, Covaxin’s safety was guaranteed.