Bharat Biotech to scale up Covaxin production, eyes 200 mn doses annually

By Sahil Pandey
New Delhi [India], May 20 : Amid the growing demand for vaccines in the country, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has announced ramping up of additional manufacturing capacities for Covaxin at Chiron Behring Vaccines in Gujarat's Ankleshwar.
In a statement released on Thursday, the company said it plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per annum in the good manufacturing practices (GMP) facilities that are already operational for the production of vaccines based on Inactivated Vero Cell Platform Technology, under stringent levels of GMP and biosafety.
"Product availability at Ankleshwar to commence from Q4 2021," the statement added.
This effectively takes the volumes upto one billion doses per annum, with its own established campuses specialised for manufacturing inactivated viral vaccines under the highest levels of biosafety.
Bharat Biotech had already deployed multiple production lines at its Hyderabad and Bengaluru campuses, adding Chiron Behring to this line up of high containment BSL rated GMP facilities that are required to manufacture Covaxin.
Covaxin is India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV).
It is among the three vaccines available in the country including Covishield and Sputnik-V.
The vaccine received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for Phase I and II Human Clinical Trials in July, 2020.