Bharat Biotech on Thursday said that it developed Covaxin with a single-minded focus on safety first, followed by efficacy. In a statement on the ongoing debate on the the side effects of Covishield, the vaccine maker said saftey of Covaxin was evaluated by the Ministry of Health, Government of India.
The company added that Covaxin was the only Covid-19 vaccine in the Govt of India's immunisation program to have conducted efficacy trials in India.
It further said Covaxin was evaluated in more than 27,000 subjects as part of the licensure process.
"It was licenced under restricted use in clinical trial mode, where detailed safety reporting was carried out for several hundred thousands subjects," the company said in a post on X.
It further said: "All the above studies and safety follow-up activities have demonstrated an excellent safety record for Covaxin, without any vaccine associated incidents of block clot, Thrombocytopenia, TTS, VIT, pericarditis, myocarditis."
Earlier this week, global pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine, developed by researchers from Oxford University, can cause a rare side effect of blood clotting and low platelet count after immunisation. In India, the same vaccine, which is called Covishield in India, is manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute. As per health minstry data, 175 crore doses of vaccines have already being administered.