India can produce 70-100 million Covishield doses/month; 150 million Covaxin doses/year

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) told a parliamentary panel that the estimated manufacturing capacity of the COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ is 70-100 million doses per month. While the indigenously developed ‘Covaxin’ has a planned production capacity of 150 million doses per year. On Monday, the report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

With the respect to the two approved vaccines, the panel desired to know the status of the current vaccine production and also how soon could these vaccines be made available to the non-priority population.

"The inactivated vaccine candidate, COVAXIN, developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has a planned production capacity of 150 million doses per year", said DBT reported PTI.

"The estimated manufacturing capacity of the non-replicating viral vector vaccine, COVISHIELD, by the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, is about 70-100 million doses per month,' the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) told the panel, reported PTI.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change further urged DBT to explore deeper into developing a cure for certain rare diseases, for which the country is dependent on imports and patients have to shell out an exorbitant amount of money for the cost and their excise/import duty.

Thirty other vaccines against coronavirus are at different stages of the trial.

Bharat Biotech & ICMR Assure Covaxin's Efficacy

On March 3, at the interim efficacy data of phase-3 trials of Covaxin, Bharat Biotech Ltd (BBL) chief Dr. Krishna Ella assured that the vaccine was evaluated by the Drug Safety Monitoring board. BBL said that its COVID-19 vaccine - Covaxin - a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine has shown an interim clinical efficacy of 81% in its Phase 3 trials. The phase 3 trial is the largest ever trial conducted in India and Covaxin has been granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation by the DGCI on January 3. 

PM Modi Gets 1st Covaxin Jab

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first one to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, as the second phase of the inoculation drive kick-started in India on March 1. PM Modi was administered Bharat BioTech's Covaxin jab by Sister P Niveda, from Puducherry, according to ANI.

(With PTI Inputs)