New Delhi: Under Aatmanirbhar 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, Govt. of India at Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), New Delhi.

To augment the capacity of indigenous production of Covaxin under the Mission, the Department of Biotechnology in April provided financial support as grant to vaccine manufacturing facilities for enhanced production capacities, which is expected to reach more than 10 crore doses per month by September 2021.

As part of this augmentation plan, the capacities of Bharat Biotech Limited, Hyderabad, as well as other public sector manufactures are being upgraded with required infrastructure and technology. 

Financial support is being provided as grant to the tune of about Rs. 65 crore to Bharat Biotech’s new Bengaluru facility which is being re-purposed to increase the capacity of vaccine production.

The following three public sector companies are also being supported to increase the capacity of vaccine production.

Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai – a State Public Sector Enterprise. Financial support of Rs. 65 crore as grant is being provided for this facility to make it ready for manufacturing. 

The facility will have a capacity to produce 20 million doses per month, once functional.

Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad – A facility under National Dairy Development Board is being provided a grant of Rs. 60 crore. 

Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited (BIBCOL), Bulandshahr, a Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Biotechnology is being supported with a grant of Rs. 30 crore to prepare their facility to provide 10-15 million doses per month.

Further, Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre, Gujarat’s Department of Science and Technology along with Hester Biosciences and OmniBRx also firmed up its discussions with Bharat Biotech to scale up the Covaxin technology and to produce minimum 20 million doses per month.