Bharat Biotech & ICMR Unite To Co-own COVID-19 Vaccine Patent

Bharat Biotech has included the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as a co-owner of the Covid-19 vaccine patent. Bharat Biotech prioritized the development of the Covid-19 vaccine to ensure its timely availability. The development faced significant challenges, with organizations racing to develop vaccines and file patents before others or before publication in journals.

The application for Bharat Biotech International Limited's (BBIL) Covid vaccine was filed under these urgent circumstances. Due to the confidentiality of the BBIL-ICMR agreement, which was not accessible, ICMR was initially omitted from the original patent application, unintentionally. Such errors, the press release noted, are not uncommon in the Patent Office, and patent law allows for rectification of such mistakes.

The press release stated that "BBIL has great respect for ICMR and is thankful to ICMR for their continuous support on various projects therefore as soon as this inadvertent mistake was noticed, BBIL has already started the process to rectify it by including ICMR as co-owner of the patent applications for Covid-19 vaccine.”

The press release also mentioned that appropriate legal paperwork is being finalized, and BBIL will submit these documents to the Patent office once they are completed and signed. This process aligns with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between ICMR-NIV Pune and BBIL in April 2020 for collaborating on the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.