Bharat Biotech's Covaxin to use adjuvant

Hyderabad: City-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech on Monday announced its novel coronavirus vaccine (under development) Covaxin, which was approved for human trials, will use adjuvant Alhydroxiquim-II to boost immune response and longer lasting immunity.

The technology is being used under a licensing agreement with Kansas-based ViroVax LLC, the vaccine maker said in a statement.

Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus, isolated at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, an Indian virology research institute. The inactivated virus is formulated with ViroVax's adjuvant to produce the vaccine candidate, it said. Bharat Biotech is currently conducting Phase II human trials of Covaxin after receiving approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).