Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin production will be doubled by June: Centre

New Delhi, May 12: The central government on Wednesday said that the current production capacity of Covaxin vaccine will be doubled by May-June 2021. It is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September 2021.

Under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India, to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines.

The current production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine will be doubled by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July - August 2021 i.e increasing 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 Sep 2021.

Few weeks back, Inter-ministerial teams had visited the sites of 2 main vaccine manufacturers in India to get their inputs on how production can be ramped up. In this period, there have been extensive reviews and feasibility studies on the plans being discussed with vaccine manufacturers.

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 Government of India to the tune of approximately Rs 65 Crore to Bharat Biotech's new Bangalore facility which is being repurposed to increase the capacity of vaccine production.

3 public sectors companies are also being supported to increase the capacity of vaccine production.

Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd , Mumbai -a State PSE under State Govt of Maharashtra. Financial support as grant from Government of India to the tune of approximately 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 ,Govt of India will also be supported to prepare there facility to provide 10-15 million dozes per month by Aug - Sep 2021.