Covaxin production to be ramped up by 200 million doses

Bharat Biotech on Thursday announced the quick ramp up of additional manufacturing capacities for Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin by an additional 200 million.

The manufacturing capacities for India's first indigenous Covid vaccine have been ramped up at Chiron Behring Vaccines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharat Biotech at Ankleshwar, Gujarat.

The company plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per annum in the 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, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech said in a statement.

The product availability at Ankleshwar is expected to commence from fourth quarter of 2021.

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.

This effectively takes the volumes up to about one billion doses per annum, with its own established campuses specialised for manufacturing inactivated viral vaccines under the highest levels of biosafety, the vaccine maker added.