increase production, missing supply obligations to the Indian government, which is also dependent on a Serum Institute of India-produced version of the AstraZeneca vaccine and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Bharat Biotech International Limited is an Indian multinational biotechnology firm based in Hyderabad. It engages in the drug discovery, drug development, manufacture of vaccines, bio-therapeutics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.
On Sunday, the firm released the first batch of COVAXIN shots from a plant in Ankleshwar, western India, which has a monthly production capacity of more than 10 million doses. Bharat Biotech stated that it was looking at prospects with international partners with experience in industrial-scale production of inactivated viral vaccines.
Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech, released a statement saying, “We want to ensure that Bharat Biotech can ably meet the demand for COVAXIN such that individuals across the country, and the globe, have access to the vaccine”. According to Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s statement in the parliament, Bharat Biotech will provide 25 million doses in July and 35 million doses in August, which is less than 50 percent of what the government had anticipated.
