Indian Immunologicals (IIL), a public sector enterprise, will commence manufacturing and supplying Covid-19 vaccines by the finish of August or early September from its facility in Hyderabad. This would augment production of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine in the nation.
V K Paul, member, well being, Niti Aayog, stated there was now some visibility about contribution from IIL, with provide of two million doses anticipated from August-September onwards. The other two public sector firms, Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation in Mumbai and Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals in Bulandshahar (Uttar Pradesh) have been anticipated to take some more time to commence production as they are creating infrastructure, which could be prepared by November or December.
The government on Tuesday stated in the Rajya Sabha that based on details shared by the vaccine makers, the month-to-month production of Covaxin was projected to go up to 58 million doses, though Serum Institute of India was anticipated to attain 120 million doses a month. Responding to a query of capacity to manufacture Covaxin and Covishield, Union well being minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated in a written reply that Covishield’s production capacity was projected to be enhanced from 110 million doses to more than 120 million doses per month.
Production capacity of Covaxin was projected to go up from 25 million doses per month to about 58 million doses per month. The government had in June launched the Covid Suraksha mission to augment production of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin by utilising capacity at two central and one state public sector enterprise. Technology transfer was also made to the Gujarat Covid Vaccine Consortium led by Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre along with Hester Biosciences and OmniBRx Biotechnologies.
Availability of Covaxin had been impacted as Bharat Biotech has not been capable to ramp up its production capacity. According to Paul, a considerable quantity of the vaccines was to come from Bharat Biotech’s new facility at Bengaluru but there have been concerns of output, high-quality assurance, standardisation and optimisation of production, which requires time and has triggered a delay in production ramp-up.
These concerns have now been sorted out and manufacturing had began. Bharat Biotech has also produced added facilities at Ankleshwar exactly where it had a rabies vaccine plant. This plant would make an added six million units of the Covaxin.
During July 2021, the government supplied 51 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and Paul stated the government was hopeful that the road map for August to December would hold excellent. The government has stated it will provide 135 crore vaccines, which are anticipated to be readily available involving August and December.