Bharat Biotech’s Ankleshwar facility to produce Covaxin was dedicated to the nation this morning by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya.  He said that the increase in production capacity of Covid-19 vaccines would speed up the pace of vaccination in India

He also released the first commercial batch of  Covaxin from the Chiron Behring vaccines facility of Bharat Biotech in Ankleshwar, Gujarat and added that the manufacturing capacity of the plant is estimated at one crore doses per month starting today.

The Union Minister also informed that Bharat Biotech has already deployed multiple production lines at its Hyderabad, Malur, Bengaluru, and Pune campuses, and the addition of Chiron Behring, Ankleshwar will further augment its Covaxin production capacity. A new filing facility constructed during 2020 is now being utilized for the production of Covaxin.  

The Covaxin production had begun in early June, before which a team had executed engineering batches to study the equipment functionality at the facility. The vaccine doses manufactured from Ankleshwar facilities would be available for supplies starting September 2021, he added.

Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, “Our goal to develop a vaccine with global safety and efficacy standards has now been achieved, we are now marching towards the goal of the annualized capacity of ~ 1.0 billion doses.”

Bharat Biotech is also exploring manufacturing partnerships with its partners in other countries, who have prior expertise with commercial-scale manufacturing of inactivated viral vaccines under biosafety containment for further augmentation, he added.