COVAXIN production capacity to be doubled by May under Mission COVID Suraksha
17 Apr 2021 10:57:41
New Delhi, Apr 17: The current production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine will be doubled by May-Jun 2021 and then will be increased nearly 6-7 fold by Jul - Aug 2021, says the Ministry of Science and Technology. This clearly denotes an increase in the production from 1 crore vaccine doses in Apr to 6-7 crore vaccine dose per month in Jul – Aug.
Under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Centre, to accelerate the development and production of indigenous COVID vaccines, that is being implemented by Dept of Biotechnology. With the plan to be implemented, 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. During the visit, there have been extensive reviews and feasibility studies on the plans being discussed with vaccine manufacturers.
As a part of the 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 Centre to the tune of approximate Rs 65 Cr to Bharat Biotech’s new Bangalore facility which is being repurposed to increase the capacity of vaccine production. In addition, 3 public sectors companies are also being supported to increase the capacity of vaccine production.