Bharat Biotech has its manufacturing facility situated at Genome Valley, Hyderabad, India.[5] As of July 2020, the company has over 700 employees[6] and has a presence worldwide.[5]
The company has been responsible for developing an eco-friendly recombinant[7] and a naturally attenuated strain derived Rotavirus vaccine called ROTAVAC.[8][9] They were one of the first to develop vaccines for viral diseases like Chikungunya[10][11] and Zika.[12][13] The company also produces vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis.[14] Bharat Biotech has biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratories.[15]
In April 2020, the company announced that they have partnered with US-based company FluGen and University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.[16][17]
A 5ml vial of Covaxin
In May 2020, Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR's) National Institute of Virology approved and provided the virus strains for developing a fully indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.[18][19] On June 29, 2020, the company got permission to conduct Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials in India for a developmental COVID-19 vaccine named Covaxin, from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Government of India.[20][21][22][23] The Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh has been engaged in testing experimental batches of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin on a priority basis.[24] A total of 12 sites were selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research for Phase I and II randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trials of vaccine candidate.[25][26]
In September 2020, the company announced that it was going to manufacture the novel chimp-adenovirus, a single dose intranasal vaccine (codenamed BBV154) for COVID-19 being developed in collaboration with the American company Precision virologics[27] and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. It is currently undergoing clinical trials.[28][29] On October 12 2021, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin got approved for usage on children between 2 and 18 years of age. [30]
Attempted data theft
In March 2021, Reuters reported that Chinese state-backed cyber-espionage group Red Apollo targeted Bharat Biotech's intellectual property for exfiltration.[31]
