Responding to a Right To Information Act (RIT) reply that has stirred a controversy, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Wednesday issued a statement saying that the final Covaxin dose administered to people does not have newborn calf serum. The controversy began a day earlier, when an RTI filed by a person identified as Vikas Patni revealed that new calf serum has been used in revival of vero cells which is used for the production of Covaxin.

Refuting rumour spread by some social media posts, the Central government on Wednesday clarified that Covaxin, India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, does not contain newborn calf serum at all.

“There have been some social media posts regarding the composition of the Covaxin vaccine where it has been suggested that it contains the newborn calf serum. Facts have been twisted and misrepresented in these posts,” said the Ministry. “Newborn Calf Serum is used only for preparation or growth of vero cells.”

Noting that different kinds of bovine and other animal serum are standard enrichment ingredient, and they are used globally for vero cell growth, the Ministry said vero cells are used to establish cell lives which help in the production of vaccines. This technique has been used for decades in Polio, Rabies, and Influenza vaccines.

The Ministry said, 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.

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PM Modi and Shivraj met in Delhi, discussed these issues