Ocugen expands Covaxin commercialization rights to include Canada
Ocugen’s existing rights to commercialize Covaxin was in the United States.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 3 Jun 2021 12:31 PM GMT
Hyderabad: US-based biopharmaceutical company Ocugen, Inc, and Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech on Thursday announced that they have entered into an amendment to their co-development, supply, and commercialization agreement to expand Ocugen's exclusive territory to commercialize Covaxin to now also include Canada, in addition to Ocugen's existing rights to commercialize Covaxin in the United States.
"As we work towards the submission of the emergency use application in the US, we will simultaneously seek authorization under interim order for emergency use in Canada. We believe Covaxin has the potential to play a key role in saving lives from COVID-19 in the US and Canada, as well as across the globe, due to the strong immune response it generates against multiple antigens," said Dr. Shankar Musunuri, the co-founder of Ocugen.
Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr. Krishna Ella stated that their goal is to provide global access to their vaccines. "With its potential effectiveness against multiple existing and emerging variants, we believe that Covaxin is an important vaccine for everyone, including children, based on its unique yet traditional vaccine platform. We are diligently working with Ocugen to bring Covaxin to the US market and now to the Canadian market," Dr. Ella said.
As consideration for Bharat Biotech's grant of the rights to commercialize Covaxin in Canada, Ocugen will make an upfront payment and milestone payment upon first commercial sale in Canada to Bharat Biotech, in addition to sharing the profit from sales of Covaxin in Canada. Similar to the US profit share arrangement, Ocugen will retain 45 per cent of the profits from sales of Covaxin in Canada.
