Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech producing at 90% capacity; 300 mn doses/month: Centre

As India surpasses 127 crore vaccine doses administered till date, Centre on Friday, revealed that India's two in-house vaccine manufacturers - Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech Ltd (BBL) are currently producing at 90%. Answering a written query in Lok Sabha, Union Health MoS Bharti Pawar stated that SII is currently producing 250-275 Million Covishield doses per month, while BBL is producing 50-60 Million Covaxin doses/month. India has administered 1,27,10,95,812 COVID vaccine doses till date of which  47,21,06,167 are completely inoculated.

Centre: BBL & SII producing at 90% capacity

"As communicated by the M/s Serum Institute of India, the current monthly vaccine production capacity of Covishield is approx. 250-275 Million doses per month. Further, as communicated by M/s Bharat Biotech International Limited, Hyderabad, the current monthly vaccine production capacity of Covaxin is approx. 50-60 Million doses/month. Both companies have achieved close to 90% of present production capacity," stated Pawar.

Moreover, she added that Sputnik-V, Biological E Limited, Cadila Healthcare Limited have been allowed to manufacture COVID vaccines in India. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has been allowed to import Sputnik-V, Cipla Ltd has been allowed to import Moderna's mRNA vaccine and Johnson & Johnson Pvt. Ltd can import its own vaccine. However, the Indian govt has not placed any order to import any of these vaccines.

The Centre also revealed that a total of 102.38 crore doses (96% of the total doses) of COVID-19 Vaccines have been administered free of cost at Government CVCs while only 4.08 crore doses (4% of the total doses) were administered at Private CVCs. As of date, 11,37,459 doses of Sputnik-V have been given, while 13,97,92,115 have been administered. Covishield - which amounts to maximum doses - has totalled 112,59,87,110 doses.

India started inoculating its citizens in a phased manner from January 16, prioritising healthcare workers first. With two indigenous vaccines (Covishield & Covaxin), India's vaccine basket has now expanded to six jabs -  Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna vaccine, J&J's Janssen vaccine and Zydus Cadila's ZyCOV-D with Gennova's mRNA vaccine, Biological E's Corbevax, Covaxin's nasal vaccine and Novovax's Covovax in the pipeline. India has also allowed clinical trials to innoculate children and is mulling to administer booster doses to vulnerable population above 60 years.