Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corp to produce 228 mn Covaxin doses annually

The Centre on Wednesday said that the Maharashtra-owned Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corp will produce 228 million Covaxin doses per annum as part of a technology transfer arrangement with vaccine maker Bharat Biotech , a move that will increase the number of Covid-19 vaccines produced locally

The Centre on Wednesday said that the Maharashtra-owned Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corp will produce 228 million Covaxin doses per annum as part of a technology transfer arrangement with vaccine maker Bharat Biotech , a move that will increase the number of Covid-19 vaccines produced locally.

Representational image. (AFP)

The announcement came days after the Centre last week rejected criticism from several states that it was not doing enough to improve vaccine production in the country and said, Haffkine , the National Dairy Development Board promoted Indian Immunologicals and the Centre-owned Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals will together aim to produce up to 40 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by December. It said this was apart from Bharat Biotech’s own efforts to enhance Covaxin production to 100 million doses per month by October. Serum Institute is also ramping up Covishield production from 65 million to 110 million doses per month.

In a statement on Wednesday, the science and technology ministry said that as part of the effort to enhance vaccine capacity, “three public enterprises are being supported by the Department of Biotechnology under Aatmanirbhar Bharat [Self-Reliant India] 3.0 Mission Covid Suraksha.”

Officials on Tuesday claimed India will be in a position to vaccinate 10 million people every day by July or August. The government’s representative separately told the Supreme Court that the country will administer doses to all eligible individuals by the end of the year.

India administered an average of 1.93 million doses of vaccine a day in May. Several states ran out of supplies by the fourth week of the month for at least some groups of recipients. Experts say the government’s target will depend on the availability of doses; supply for June has been pegged at 120 million.

Sandeep Rathod, managing director, Haffkine Biopharmaceuticals, said the Centre has provided the company ₹65 crore grant and Maharashtra ₹94 crore for the production of Covaxin.

“We have been given a timeline of eight months. The vaccine production process involves two stages – drug substance and final drug product. For the production of drug substance, we need to build a Bio Safety Level 3 (BSL 3) facility. Haffkine already has the fill finish facility,” said Rathod. Fill finish refers to the process of filling vials of the vaccine and packing the product.

BSL 3 is a safety standard applicable to such facilities where work involves microbes that can cause serious disease if inhaled or consumed.

Renu Swarup, secretary, the department of biotechnology, said enhancing vaccine production capacity using public sectors assets will go a long way in building the production capacity of vaccines in the country to support the massive vaccination drive.

Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd is an offshoot of the 122-year-old Haffkine Institute, which is one of the oldest biomedical research institutes in the country, named after the Russian bacteriologist Dr Waldemar Haffkine, who invented the plague vaccine.