Bharat Biotech likely to start manufacturing Covaxin at Pune plant soon

Covaxin might soon be produced in the neighbourhood of Covishield after Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech started engineering batches of Covaxin at Biovet’s Manjari plant near Pune. Meanwhile, Covaxin production will touch 55 mn doses a month from October.

Biovet is an associate firm of Bharat Biotech. “At present engineering batches are on at the Manjari plant. Soon, commercial production will start,” said a source close to the developments.

Engineering batches are run to test the functionality of the installed equipment. The Manjari plant spread over 12 hectares was acquired by Biovet. It is a ready to use vaccine plant that belonged to a Merck & Co subsidiary Intervet India. Intervet is exiting business operations in India and has thus sold the Manjari unit to Biovet.

Meanwhile, Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech, has indicated that Covaxin capacity will touch 55 mn monthly doses by October. In August, Bharat Biotech manufactured 35 million doses of the vaccine.

Animal vaccine maker Hester Biosciences, on the other hand, is setting up a greenfield BSL-3 facility in Gujarat to make Covaxin. Biosafety levels or BSL refer to biological safety levels. Laboratories are categorised into four levels ranging from BSL-1 to BSL-4 depending on their ability to handle dangerous and potentially lethal pathogens.

Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre is acting as a facilitator and mentor to Hester for this process. The plant is expected to be ready by January and will be capable of manufacturing up to 7 mn Covaxin doses a month.