Covaxin does not contain newborn calf serum, clarifies health ministry amid speculation
The Centre refuted social media posts saying that newborn calf serum was used only for the preparation or growth of vero cells.
The Centre on Wednesday dismissed social media posts claiming that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin contains newborn calf serum. It said such posts are “twisted and misrepresented”.
Congress leader Gaurav Padhi, citing a Right to Information response, also claimed that the government has admitted Covaxin consists newborn calf serum. “...Which is a portion of clotted blood obtained from less than 20 days young cow-calves, after slaughtering them,” he tweeted. “This is heinous! This information should have been made public before.”
But, the RTI response clearly stated that newborn calf serum was used only in revival of vero cells, which is used in the production of the vaccine.
In a statement, the health ministry clarified that the final vaccine did not contain calf serum. “Different kinds of bovine and other animal serum are standard enrichment ingredient used globally for vero cell growth,” it added. “Vero cells are used to establish cell lines which help in production of vaccines. This technique has been used for decades in polio, rabies, and influenza vaccines.”
Final vaccine product of #COVAXIN does NOT contain new born calf serum !
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) June 16, 2021
Claims suggesting otherwise are misrepresenting facts !
Animal serum has been used in vaccine manufacturing process for decades, but it is completely removed from the end product.https://t.co/NKlh5kow08 pic.twitter.com/L4CrEmZtT1
Animals are not killed to derive blood serum for covaxin. Either the blood is taken from alive calf or (usually the case) imported from slaughter houses from outside of India. Moreover, no amount of calf/cow is actually in the vaccine, it is only needed to produce it https://t.co/l6GVDCj0U6
— Dr Sumaiya Shaikh (@Neurophysik) June 15, 2021
The health ministry also explained that the vero cells, after the growth, are washed with water and chemicals several times to make it free from the newborn calf serum. After this, they were infected with coronavirus for viral growth and completely destroyed in the process.
“Thereafter this grown virus is also killed (inactivated) and purified,” the statement added. “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.”
India, which launched its vaccination drive on January 16, has been inoculating its population with two Covid-19 vaccines. One is Serum Institute’s Covishield, developed in collaboration with the Oxford University and drug company AstraZeneca. The other is Covaxin, created in partnership of Indian drug company Bharat Biotech and the Union government’s Indian Council of Medical Research.
