Shortage of key chemical hits Bharat Biotech's Covaxin ramp-up plans

Bharat Biotech is trying to ramp up capacities of Covaxin to 12 million doses per month by July, from the current 5 million doses per month

With Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech in the midst of ramping up its capacity for Covaxin, sources said the biotechnology company is facing challenges in procuring the adjuvant used in the vaccine.

The unsung hero of vaccines is a component called the adjuvant. It puts a ‘red flag’ on the antigenic component of the vaccine — an inactivated whole or part of a virus or bacteria — and instructs the immune system to mount a defence against that antigen whenever it is encountered.

“One of the reasons for the sluggish pace of the Covaxin production scale-up is the firm facing