Department of Biotechnology and BIRAC under the Mission Covid Suraksha announced by the Government of India, under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines, have launched a project to augment production capacities of Covaxin.

Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad, is the first site under this project to receive from CDSCO, a loan license for supplying Covaxin Drug Substance produced at its repurposed facility to Bharat Biotech. Indian Immunologicals will supply the first lot of commercial Covaxin Drug Substance to Bharat Biotech. The facility will produce two to three million doses per month initially, and another four to five million doses from its new facility at Karkapatla, in the next few weeks.

Speaking on this achievement Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT and Chairperson, BIRAC said, ‘’The government has worked relentlessly to provide all possible support for ramping up Covaxin production in the country and speed up Covaxin inoculation drive. The loan license agreement by CDSCO for Indian Immunologicals to produce Covaxin Drug Substance is a major milestone, achieved in a very short period. The DBT-BIRAC support under Mission Covid Suraksha aims to meet the Covid-19 vaccine requirement of our country. I congratulate the team for the efforts put in for this achievement.”

“IIL is also working on another COVID -19 vaccine and the animal trials are underway currently and is expected to come out by next year for human vaccination," said Dr K Anand Kumar, MD, IIL.