Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabad based Indian vaccine maker, said it is gearing up to increase manufacturing capacity of Covaxin by 200 million doses per year.

The additional doses will take the total volume of doses to about a billion per year, the company said, amid demands of coronavirus vaccine from various states which are still waiting to extend the vaccination drive to people in the 18-45 age group.

The vaccine manufacturer has raised the manufacturing capacity at its subsidiary's Ankleshwar-based facility in Gujarat.

"The company plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per year in its GMP facilities that are already operational for the production of vaccines based on Inactivated Vero Cell Platform Technology, under stringent levels of GMP and biosafety," Bharat Biotech said.

The Ankaleshwar plant will start rolling out vaccines from the fourth quarter of the year, IBNS said. 

The company has already increased the manufacturing capacity of its Hyderabad plant to 700 million doses per annum.

Covaxin is an indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine made in  collaboration between Bharat Biotech, Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology.

The second vaccine used in India, Covishield, has been developed by Swedish drug major AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and manufactured in India by the Serum Institute.

(SAM)