Haffkine Biopharma, a Maharashtra state PSU, is getting ready to manufacture 22.8 crore doses of corona vaccine Covaxin per year. 

The Covaxin vaccine is manufactured under technology transfer arrangement with Bharat Biotech Limited. The production will take place at the Parel complex and the company is planning to produce 22.8 crore doses per annum of Covaxin. 

Dr. Sandeep Rathod, Managing Director, Haffkine BioPharma said, "The company proposes to produce 22.8 crore doses of Covaxin in a year." 

"For undertaking production of Covaxin, Haffkine Biopharma has been provided a Rs. 65 crore grant by the centre and Rs. 94 crore from the government of Maharashtra,” commented Rathod. 

Talking about setting production capacity, Dr. Sandeep Rathod said, “We have been given a timeline of eight months and the work is being executed on a war footing. The vaccine production process involves two stages - drug substance and final drug product. For production of drug substances we need to build a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL 3) facility while Haffkine already has the Fill Finish facility.” 

BSL 3 is a safety standard applicable to such facilities where work involves microbes which can cause serious disease via inhalation route. 

"Enhancing vaccine production capacity using public sector assets will go a long way in building production capacity of vaccines in our country to support the massive vaccination drive,” said Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Chairperson of BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council). 

Haffkine BioPharmaceutical Corporation Limited is an offshoot of the 122 year old Haffkine Institute, which is one of the oldest biomedical research institutes in the country, named after the Russian bacteriologist Dr. Waldemar Haffkine, who invented the plague vaccine.