The Government on Wednesday clarified that there is no calf serum in Bharat Biotech’s final vaccine product, Covaxin, which is being used for inoculation against Covid-19. 

The clarification was issued by the health ministry in response to social media posts that claimed Covaxin contains calf serum.

"There have been some social media posts regarding composition of the Covaxin vaccine where it has been suggested that Covaxin vaccine contains the newborn calf serum. Facts have been twisted and misrepresented in these posts," the Union Health Ministry said. 

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The ministry clarified that the newborn calf serum is used only for the preparation and growth of vero cells, adding that this technique has been used for decades in Polio, Rabies, and Influenza vaccines.

"Different kinds of bovine and other animal serum are standard enrichment ingredients used globally for vero cell growth. Vero cells are used to establish cell lives which help in production of vaccines," it added.

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The ministry further explained that the vero cells, after the growth, are washed with water and chemicals, also technically known as buffer, several times to make it free from the newborn calf serum. "Thereafter, these vero cells are infected with coronavirus for viral growth,' it said.

"The vero cells are completely destroyed in the process of viral growth. Thereafter this grown virus is also killed (inactivated) and purified. 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," the ministry explained.