The Centre on Tuesday approved Bharat Biotech’s manufacturing facility at Ankleshwar in Gujarat to produce Covaxin, the company’s anti-Covid vaccine, the Union health ministry announced.
“Govt of India approves vaccine manufacturing facility for production of @BharatBiotech’s #Covaxin in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. Following PM @NarendraModi ji’s vision of #SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine, this will increase vaccine availability & accelerate the world’s largest vaccine drive,” tweeted Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
According to people familiar with the matter, vaccine doses from this facility are likely to be out for use by September. Close to six million doses are likely to be produced in the Ankleshwar plant that earlier manufactured anti-rabies vaccines.
The overall Covaxin production capacity is going to be scaled up to close to 60 million doses a month around the last quarter of this year.
Currently, doses from Bharat Biotech’s Hyderabad facility are being supplied for the country’s Covid-19 immunisation programme. Apart from the Gujarat facility, Bharat Biotech has also refurbished its Malur plant in Karnataka to produce Covaxin doses to scale up production.
Even though the company did not respond to queries, in an earlier statement it said, “Products manufactured from these facilities will be available for supplies during September. This is based on our 120-day timeline for manufacturing, testing, release, regulatory approvals, and distribution.”
With a couple of other public sector undertakings (PSU) also being roped in for manufacturing Covaxin doses, the production number of Covaxin is projected to increase from the current 25 million doses a month to at least 58 million doses. The Union health minister disclosed this in Parliament earlier this month.
{{/usCountry}}With a couple of other public sector undertakings (PSU) also being roped in for manufacturing Covaxin doses, the production number of Covaxin is projected to increase from the current 25 million doses a month to at least 58 million doses. The Union health minister disclosed this in Parliament earlier this month.
{{/usCountry}}According to Bharat Biotech, each batch of Covaxin undergoes over 200 quality control tests before being submitted to Central Drugs Laboratory for testing. The company has so far supplied at least 70 million doses for the immunisation programme.
Vinod Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog, had said earlier in a press briefing on Covid-19 updates that the national vaccination programme may start getting about 2 million doses from Indian Immunologicals Limited, a PSU, by late August or September.
“… it will take some time for production to begin at the Haffkine, BIBCOL (Bharat Immunologicals Biologicals Limited), and Gujarat consortium as substantive infrastructure is being built, modified, or repurposed in these plants. Broadly, the activation of the PSUs will happen in November or December,” he had said.
Vaccine availability will further increase in the country with vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson receiving emergency use authorisation in India, and another made-in-India vaccine, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D, likely to get necessary approvals soon.
There are five Covid-19 vaccines that India has authorised for emergency use. The other two are Serum Institute of India’s Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that is being locally produced under the brand name Covishield, and the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.