Who Is Dr Sumathy K? The Head – R&D Bharat Biotech Which Developed Covaxin

Bharat Biotech International Limited, Hyderabad's coronavirus vaccine has now been approved for restricted use in an emergency. This is India's indigenous vaccine against novel coronavirus. It is a historic feat in terms of the time taken for any innovation, it is a first that an Indian company matched the steps of western pharma giants. In the short press briefing, the DCGI said the data from Phase 3 trials in India had shown Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to be “safe”.

The team behind Covaxin has worked very hard to get this vaccine right on time. The core team of scientists who developed the Covaxin has a woman scientist too, Dr Sumathy K, who heads the research and development wing at the institute.  The team at Bharat Biotech is headed by the founder Dr Krishna Ella.

Here are a few things you should know about Dr Sumathy K.

Dr Sumathy is a PhD in Life Sciences from JNU and heads Bharat Biotech’s (BBIL's) Research and Development team. As an experienced scientist, she bought deep industry expertise to the team.

She won a Commonwealth fellowship to University College, London. 

She was earlier instrumental in the development of successful vaccines against Zika and Chikungunya too.

𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-19 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐬 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. The results of the #COVAXIN Phase-2 human clinical trials can be accessed at https://t.co/jjl1WifW2q pic.twitter.com/VKfvjeZuOE

— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) December 24, 2020