By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Hyderabad based public sector undertaking Indian Immunological Limited may start supplying 2 million doses of Covaxin—country’s first and only fully indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine so far by September, government authorities said on Tuesday.
In a press briefing by the Union health ministry on Covid-19 status in the country, V K Paul, head of the national Covid-19 task force said that the two other undertakings with which the government has tied up with Covaxin production will take some time to start manufacturing.
These PSUs include BIBCOL under the ministry and Haffkine Institute under the Maharashtra government.
He however added that Bharat Biotech’s Ankleshwar facility could add another 6 million Covaxin doses in days to come. “Covaxin production capacity will increase. We expect a quantum jump after the Bangalore facility (of Bharat Biotech) starts,” said Paul in response to a query.
He added that there has been a delay because of standardization issues, quality, efficient flow and validation. “This needed extra work, so there was a small delay. Some hiccups can occur. But an additional facility in Ankaleshwar has started — we’ll get 6 million doses. The PSUs — to an extent, from IIL, we’ll get 2 million doses by later August or September. “
Paul added that at Haffkine and BIBCOL, substantial infrastructure is needed, and they will take time to get operational. “We might need to wait until November-December for activation of those PSUs.”
Earlier in the day, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed the Parliament that the monthly production capacity of Covaxin is expected to increase to around 58 million doses by December.
“As communicated by the manufacturers, the monthly vaccine production capacity of Covishield is projected to be increased from 110 million doses per month to more than 120 million doses per month, and the production capacity of Covaxin is projected to be increased from 25 million doses per month to around 58 million doses per month,” the minister said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The low supply of Covaxin has remained a concern despite claims by the government earlier that nearly 10 crore doses of this vaccine may be produced from September, which will help it meet the target of vaccinating all the adult population by 2021.
In response to yet another query in the Parliament earlier, the government had informed that less than 5.5 crore doses of Covaxin, has been supplied for India’s Covid vaccination programme till mid-July showing that on average, the country may have received less than 1 crore doses per month of the vaccine so far.