Hyderabad, May 28 (UNI) Indian Immunological limited (IIL) will start production of drug substance for Covaxin under Mission COVID Suraksha.
In a bid to augment vaccine production, the government has decided to support some public sector companies with grants under the Mission COVID Suraksha.
One such Hyderabad- based company IIL, which is a facility under the PSU, National Dairy Development Board.
A technical collaboration and agreement has been reached between IIL and Bharat Biotech, for the former to supply the drug substance required for manufacturing of Covaxin Vaccine to the latter
IIL Managing Director Dr K Anand Kumar said the IIL is planning to start the production of the drug substance for Covaxin vaccine from June 15, and send out the first batch to Bharat Biotech by July.
Stating that Indian Immunologicals is expected to produce the drug substance for about 10-15 million doses per month, Dr Anand Kumar said it will be initially 2-3 million doses and will be scaled up to 6-7 million per month later in the year.
He shared that they are converting the Karkapatla manufacturing unit of IIL near Hyderabad into a Bio Safety Level -3 (BSL3) facility for the production of the drug substance and is also taking up construction of another block.
The IIL is also working on another COVID -19 vaccine and the animal trials are underway currently and is expected to come out by next year for human vaccination.
Under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India, to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines.
This is being implemented by Department of Biotechnology. The IIL, Hyderabad has been sanctioned a grant of Rs 60 crore towards enhancing production capabilities, a release here said on Friday.
