Faced with the target of making available 216 crore Covid-19 vaccines by December-end, the Government is identifying manufacturing sites for indigenously-developed Covaxin outside India.
The Centre is also taking up with vaccine manufacturers like Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and others the issue of granting voluntary licence to third-party manufacturers here on transfer of technology.
The move follows complaints from various States about the shortage of vaccines which is hampering its nationwide vaccination programme launched on January 16. Officials in the Union Health Ministry said World Health Organization (WHO) will also be approached to help it step up Covaxin production.
These issues were discussed in an inter-ministerial meeting on May 18 to deliberate upon the options, including voluntary licence, compulsory licence and Government use authorisation under the Patents Act, 1970, available to increase the availability of drugs and vaccines used for treatment of Covid-19, the officials said.
The Ministry of External Affairs has also been asked to take up the matter with AstraZeneca, the maker of Covishield, to encourage them to grant more voluntary licences in India.
The MEA and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will also prepare a roadmap to address raw material supply constraints for Covishield and identify the sources of raw material while as for Pfizer vaccine, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will take up the matter with MEA, Niti Aayog and Law Secretary to prepare a status report on issue of indemnity and liability agreement being proposed by vaccine manufacturer.
Three public sector companies — Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai, a PSU under the Maharashtra government; Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad, a facility under National Dairy; and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited (BIBCOL), Bulandshahr, a PSU under the DBT are being roped in for manufacture of the vaccine.