The Union Government is planning to double the production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 folds by July – August 2021.
This will increase the production from 1 crore vaccine doses in April 2021 to 6-7 crore vaccine dose/month in July – August. It is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September 2021, the government said in a statement.
As a part this augmentation plan, capacities of Bharat Biotech Limited, Hyderabad as well as other public sector manufactures are being upgraded with required infrastructure and technology.
Financial support is being provided as grant from the government to the tune of about Rs 65 crore to Bharat Biotech’s new Bangalore facility which is being repurposed to increase the capacity of vaccine production.
Apart from this, three public sectors companies are also being supported to increase the capacity of vaccine production.
One of them is Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai – a Maharashtra state-owned firm. Financial support of about Rs 65 crore will be provided for this facility to be made ready for manufacturing.
The Haffkine Biopharmaceuticals Ltd had asked for around 12 months to complete this task. However, the central government has asked them to expedite and complete the task urgently within 6 months. The facility will have a capacity of 20 million dozes per month, once functional.
Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad – a facility under National Dairy Development Board and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited (BIBCOL) , Bulandshahr a CPSE under Department of Biotechnology will also be supported to prepare their facility to provide 10-15 million dozes per month by August – September 2021.
