Quality concerns delayed Covaxin supply, says top govt advisor

NTAGI chief Dr NK Arora said the government was initially hoping for a much scaled-up production of Covaxin, but the initial glitches slowed down the process.

The supply of indigenously manufactured anti-coronavirus vaccine Covaxin has been delayed over quality issues in the first few batches of the doses that were produced at the company’s most recent facility in Bengaluru, a senior advisor to the government has said.

First few batches of Covaxin produced at Bharat Biotech's facility in Bengaluru were of unsatisfactory quality.

As the vaccine shortage crisis continues to hit the nationwide inoculation drive, Dr NK Arora, chief of the National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI), said the government was initially hoping for a much scaled-up production of Covaxin, but the initial glitches, including that of quality, slowed down the entire process.

Covaxin, backed by the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is one of the two main vaccines, the other one being Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, that are being administered in the country against the virus.

"The test batches from the Bengaluru plant were not satisfactory and got rejected and it led to a delay in ramping up production, but now the batches have been approved by the competent authority and will be available for public consumption," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

"Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute are our major vaccine suppliers and we hope they will drive our mission to complete the adult immunisation programme in this country by the end," he added.

Regarding the present status of vaccine supplies, he said, "Serum Institute produced almost 8- 10 crore doses, 3-3.5 crore from Bharat Biotech and a small contribution from (Russia-made) Sputnik V."

Dr Arora also expressed hope that ZyCoV-D, being manufactured by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, will be available soon.

(With agency inputs)