Bharat Biotech moves to add ICMR as co-owner in Covaxin patent filings

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited, the manufacturer of Covaxin, said on Saturday that it has begun the process 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 credited 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 it had made an “inadvertent mistake” in not including the names of scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research as a “co-owner” in patent applications for Covaxin. Their names will be included in fresh filings, the company clarified.