Hitting out at social media posts that claimed that Bharat Biotech's Covaxin contains calf serum, Union Health Ministry on Wednesday, 16 June, said that 'facts have been twisted and misrepresented'.
The ministry said that newborn calf serum is used only for the preparation and growth of vero cells –– a practice that has been in place for decades in Polio, Rabies, and Influenza vaccines.
“Different kinds of bovine and other animal serum are standard enrichment ingredient used globally for vero cell growth. Vero cells are used to establish cell lives, which help in production of vaccines,” the statement read.
Bharat Biotech’s Response
In a similar statement, Bharat Biotech said:
“New born calf serum is used in the manufacturing of viral vaccines. It is used for the growth of cells, but neither used in growth of SARS CoV2 virus nor in the final formulation. Covaxin is highly purified to contain only the inactivated virus components by removing all other impurities.”
The company added that the usage of new born calf serum was transparently documented in the following publications since the last nine months.
"The vero cells are completely destroyed in the process of viral growth. Thereafter this grown virus is also killed (inactivated) and purified. This killed virus is then used to make the final vaccine, and in the final vaccine formulation no calf serum is used. Hence, the final vaccine (COVAXIN) does not contain newborn calf serum at all and the calf serum is not an ingredient of the final vaccine product," the ministry added.
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