Wockhardt Hepatitis-B Vaccine Units Get Gmp

Wockhardt's bulk and formulation facilities in Aurangabad for its hepatitis-B vaccine, Biovac-B, have received the WHO GMP (World Health Organisation - Good Manufacturing Practices) certification.

With this, its mega brand Biovac-B has become the country's first WHO GMP approved hepatitis-B vaccine in India for both its bulk and formulation units, the company said in a release.

This now makes Wockhardt eligible for government tenders. It can supply vaccines to the government in order to support the hepatitis-B immunisation programme.

"To facilitate the increasing need of recombinant products catering to domestic and global requirements, we are creating a manufacturing facility at Aurangabad with a capacity of 10 crore paediatric doses of Biovac-B vaccine," Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala said.

Wockhardt has two products in its biotech portfolio, which include Biovac-B and Epox. In the pipeline are several bio-pharmaceutical products such as human insulin and Interferon Alpha 2b and has plans of launching on new biotech product every year for the next few years.

The company has recently filed its first investigational new drug application (Inda) with the drug controller general of India in the anti-infectives segment. The company is also developing new drug delivery systems (NDDS) aimed mainly at developed nations.