As per the top official, the supply of Bharat BioTech’s Covaxin has been slowed down because some of the initial samples manufactured in the new fermentation plant of Bharat Biotech were rejected because they were not of the right quality.
Various stability studies have been conducted on vaccines and other pharmaceutical products. These studies were conducted to determine the storage period of intermediates and to modify the shelf-life of the vaccine. And not such quality issues have been found in the vaccine.
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Recently, Covid task force member Dr NK Arora was interviewed by the media channel NDTV, where Dr NK said that the government was expecting a rise in the production of Covaxin, one of the two indigenous vaccines approved by the Indian government, but was set back because some initial samples of the manufacturing company were rejected due to the stability issues in the Bharat BioTech’s Bangaluru plant.
Dr Arora said, “Vaccine manufacturing is almost like rocket science. We were expecting a much sharper rise in the production of Covaxin. They have started a new facility in Bengaluru. In addition, three public sector undertakings are also working together to augment the total output. Ultimately we are expecting 10-12 crore doses from Bharat Biotech.”
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He continued, “The Bangalore plant was one of the largest vaccine manufacturing plants globally. But an initial couple of batches did not pass quality issues... It was not of the right quality. But the third and fourth batches have now come up which have moved forward. We hope in the next four or six weeks the vaccine production will really ramp up from Bharat Biotech.”
Covid task force head said that the main priority of the government of India is to ramp up the production of Covid vaccines as it is expected that the nation would witness the third wave in just one or two months.
When he was asked about the ramping up of Covaxin production, he replied, “I am given to understand that in the next few weeks they may increase production several-fold.”
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