Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech on Tuesday announced to expand its vaccine production capacity. The firm will now produce 70 crore doses of Covaxin a year.The Central government in order to speed up supplies of covid vaccines it has approved a payment of about Rs 4,500 crore as advance to vaccine makers like Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech against future supplies, sources said.
Bharat Biotech is to supply another 90 million doses to the government by July at a pre-agreed rate of Rs 150 per dose. The centre will provide Bharat Biotech with Rs 1,500 crore in advance.
This comes amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic being witnessed across the country.
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, said Ministry of Science & Technology. The ministry further informed that production will be increased from one crore vaccine doses in April 2021 to 6-7 crore vaccine dose/month in July - August, and it is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September this year.
Three public sector compes are being supported to increase the capacity of vaccine production - Bharat Biotech's new Bangalore facility, Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd in Mumbai - a State PSE (Public Sector Enterprise) under the Maharashtra government, and Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad -A facility under National Dairy Development Board and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited (BIBCOL).