Amid concerns over the sliding rate of vaccination in the country, maker of India's indigenous vaccine Covaxin Bharat Biotech on Thursday said it plans to produce additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine at its subsidiary's Ankleshwar in Gujarat based facility, taking the overall production volume of the vaccine to 1 billion (100 crore) dosages per annum.
The Hyderabad-based firm said it will utilise the Ankleshwar-based production facility of its wholly-owned subsidiary Chiron Behring Vaccines to add another 200 million doses of Covaxin.
"The company plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per annum in the GMP facilities that are already operational for the production of vaccines based on Inactivated Vero Cell Platform Technology, under stringent levels of GMP and biosafety," Bharat Biotech said in a statement.
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The Ankleshwar-based plant would start rolling out the much in demand vaccine from the fourth quarter of the year, it added.
The company said it has already deployed multiple production lines at its Hyderabad and Bengaluru campuses.
"This effectively takes the volumes up to 1 billion doses per annum, with its own established campuses specialised for manufacturing inactivated viral vaccines under the highest levels of biosafety," it added.
Chiron Behring Vaccines, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Bharat Biotech, is one of the largest manufacturers of rabies vaccines in the world.
(With PTI inputs)
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