Bharat Biotech releases first commercial batch of Covaxin from its Ankleshwar plant

Dedicating the release of the first batch of Covaxin from Ankleshwar to the nation, the minister said it was a landmark moment in the journey of India's fight against COVID-19. The increase in the production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines will give further impetus to the pace of vaccination in India, he said and added that it is a matter of great pride that the research and production of vaccines of two companies - Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila - took place in India.

He also said that the Ankleshwar plant has a manufacturing capacity of more than one crore doses per month. India, the minister said, is running one of the largest vaccination programmes in the world and it was made possible due to the development of these indigenous vaccines. The national COVID-19 vaccination programme is being successfully conducted across all states and Union Territories since it was launched on 16 January 2021, he added.

About the status of Covaxin production in India, Mr. Mandaviya said 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 that, the team had executed engineering batches to study the equipment functionality at the facility. Products manufactured from Ankleshwar facilities will be available for supplies starting September 2021, the minister said.

Dr. Krishna Ella, the chairman and managing director of 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 annualized capacity of one billion doses."