The production of Covaxin vaccine will be doubled by May- June and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July-August 2021. Bharat biotech makes 1 crore doses in a month now. The production of the vaccine may reach nearly 10 crore doses a month by September, On Friday, the Department of Biotechnology said.
Besides Bharat Biotech, three other state-run companies will also be provided financial support to increase vaccine production.
The DBT has funded three state-run facilities — the Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai; Indian Immunologicals Limited, Hyderabad and Biologicals Limited, Bulandsh-ahr — to make vaccines. Haffkine has been given ₹65 crores but it will take anywhere between 6-12 months to be able to produce the vaccine; the other two facilities are expected to begin producing 10-15 million doses a month by August.
The mainstay of increasing production will be Bharat Biotech which is in the process of scaling up its Bengaluru manufacturing facility.
”Scaling up a manufacturing facility to be able to make 10 crore doses a month is a huge challenge,” Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, told ”THE HINDU” But we’ve asked all companies to accelerate.”
