Rumors about Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech’s stating that skipping and speeding up the trials during COVID time is now creating panic among the public.
Reacting to this, On Thursday, the Union Health Ministry rejected media reports stating that Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech skipped certain processes and accelerated clinical trials due to political pressure, calling them ‘completely misleading, fallacious and ill-informed’.
The ministry said- ‘The government of India and the national regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) have followed a scientific approach and prescribed norms in approving the Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use authorization’.
‘Before Covaxin was approved for restricted emergency use in January 2021, the Subject Expert Committee reviewed the data on the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine and recommended for grant of permission for restricted use in an emergency situation in the public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains,’ it added.
The media reports claimed that the manufacturer of the indigenous Covaxin, Bharat Biotech had skipped certain processes and sped up clinical trials due to political pressure. They also alleged that there were several irregularities in the three phases of the clinical trials.