Amid reports of severe shortage of Covid -19 jabs in the country, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Thursday announced that it has ramped up additional manufacturing capacities for the Covaxin vaccine. Covishield and Covaxin are being provided under the Government’s nationwide vaccination programme.
Chiron Behring, a subsidy of Bharat Biotech in Ankleshwar, Gujarat, plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per annum in the GMP (good manufacturing practicing) facilities that are already operational for the production of vaccines based on Inactivated Vero Cell Platform Technology, under stringent levels of GMP and biosafety, the company said in a statement here. Product availability at Ankleshwar will commence from fourth quarter 2021, it added.
The addition in manufacturing capabilities takes the volume of covaxin doses to up to 1 billion doses per annum, the company said. The company ramped up capacities at its own established campuses specialised for manufacturing inactivated viral vaccines under the highest biosafety levels.