The first few batches at the company’s newest facility in Bengaluru were not of the right quality, a top official has said in an Interview with NDTV.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Covid task force member NK Arora admitted that the government was banking on a much sharper rise in the production of Covaxin – one of the two main vaccines in use in India – but was set back because of the quality issues at what is the company’s biggest plant globally.
“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 undertaking are also working together to augment the total output. Ultimately we are expecting 10-12 crore doses from Bharat Biotech,” said Dr Arora, who heads the Covid working group.
“The Bangalore plant was one of the largest vaccine manufacturing plants globally. But the 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,” he told NDTV.
Dr Arora explained that only recently had the Bangalore plant started producing better batches. “They are on the second batch of clear quality. Now there will be rapid ramping up. In the next few weeks there will be an exponential increase in production,” he said.
Dr Arora also clarified that the batches, which were not of the right quality, were never released for the national vaccination campaign.
With the prediction of the third wave, vaccinating the country is the top most priority of the government amid this pandemic.
If India wants to meet the December target of vaccination, it needs 30 crore doses a month in order to vaccinate close to a crore a day.
This means Bharat Biotech has to scale up production from about one or two crores a day to 10 crores which is a big jump, Dr Arora was asked if that possible.
“I am given to understand that in the next few weeks it is possible that they will increase production several-fold,” he replied.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
