Late But A Step In The Right Direction As Govt Looks For More Companies To Manufacture Covaxin
Covaxin, the first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19 was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, with technical support from the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
While Bharat Biotech has been manufacturing and selling it to the Center followed by states and private hospitals, there has been growing call from various corners to waive off patent protection of the vaccine and allow other drugmakers in India also to manufacture it to meet the rising domestic demand.
Good move
On Thursday NITI Aayog member (Health), Dr VK Paul said, "People say that Covaxin should be given to other companies for manufacturing. I am happy to say that Bharat Biotech has welcomed this when we discussed it with them."
He however said that Covaxin can only be manufactured in the Biosafety level 3 (BSL3) labs.
"Covaxin is made by inactivating a live virus. This happens only in the BSL3 laboratory which is very sophisticated. It is not something that every company has. We give an open invitation and we have already reached out from our side to make it together," he said, adding that the government will provide full assistance to ramp up the capacity.
Last month the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under Mission COVID Suraksha, spelt out a plan to ramp up production of Covaxin and double it by May-June by roping in three public sector companies (PSUs).
The PSUs are Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai, a PSU under the Maharashtra government; Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad, a facility under National Dairy Development Board; and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited, Bulandshahr, a PSU of the Department of Biotechnology, to increase the capacity of vaccine production.
"The current production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin will be doubled by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July-August 2021, i.e. increasing the production from 1 crore vaccine doses in April 2021 to 6-7 crore vaccine dose/month in July¨CAugust. It is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September 2021," the DBT had said.
Kerala government which was among those who demand that the formula of the vaccine should be shared with other companies had proposed to make the doses in the state using the vaccine production facility of Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (KSDP) a state-owned PSU to make COVID-19 vaccines.
AM Arif, an MP from Kerala had written to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan requesting his support for the initiative, which he said will help in easing the vaccine shortage and ensure a low-cost supply of the doses to more people.
