Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech said on Tuesday they would end a public spat after executives of both Indian vaccine makers clashed over the approval of their rival shots.
They also pledged a smooth rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to India and the world.
"Both companies respect the great work being carried out by each other and put behind us the miscommunication and misunderstanding caused during the past week," SII's Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech's Chairman Krishna Ella said in a joint statement.
India's drugs regulator on Sunday approved for emergency use a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which will be manufactured by SII, and another developed domestically by Bharat Biotech.
But the approval for Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN, developed with a government research body, faced criticism from industry experts and others as the company has yet to release efficacy and safety data, and it still has a Phase III trial underway.
"Until we get the efficacy result, how do we know that anything works?" Poonawalla told Reuters on Sunday.
Ella, however, defended both his firm and the approval for the vaccine in an online press conference on Monday.
"I want to say that it hurts as scientists. We work 24 hours. Do we deserve that type of bashing from the people?" Ella said, adding his firm was being picked on because it was Indian.
Ella also took a swipe at AstraZeneca, which said in November a dosing error had led to promising results in a subset of its trial volunteers.
In Tuesday's joint statement, the companies said they were fully aware of the importance of vaccines for people and countries and they jointly pledged to provide global access to their Covid-19 vaccines.
Costing
Vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford will cost $3-$4 per shot to the Indian government and will be priced at double that rate in private market once such sales open up, reports PTI quoting the SII CEO as saying on Monday.
SII has already manufactured close to 50 million doses.
CEO Adar Poonawalla said that the company will start selling the “Covishield” to the Indian government and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) countries in the first stage, followed by the private market.
"We want the vaccine to be affordable and accessible to all. The government of India will receive it at a far more affordable price of $3-$4, since they will be buying in a larger volume," he said.
Poonawalla said the priority supplies will go to India and the GAVI nations.
Export ban ‘misinformation’
Responding to a question during a press briefing, India’s Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “The union government has not banned the export of any one of the Covid-19 vaccines and this should be absolutely clear.”
Replying to another question, Bhushan said, "When I say union government, it means there are three ministries - Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade with the Ministry of Commerce and Directorate General of Foreign Trade - which can initiate, in a hypothetical scenario, such an action.
“But none of them have taken any such action. Therefore, our request to our media friends would be that we should be on guard when such misinformation is spread,” Bhushan said.