Only 1 in 11 gets Covaxin as Bharat Biotech falls short of production targets

MUMBAI: Homegrown Covaxin was to play a major role in vaccination against Covid-19. But eight months after the vaccination drive began, only one in 11 Indians has managed to get the first indigenous vaccine. Bharat Biotech, which manufactures it, has failed to ramp up production at the pace it had envisaged.

Stymied by shortages of drug substance and filling capacity, the Hyderabad-based company has repeatedly fallen short of the target it had set for itself. In between, it also saw a batch of its vaccine face quality issues.

Its CMD Krishna Ella recently said the company would supply 5.5 crore doses from October, from the existing 3.5 crore doses-- substantially lower than the initially-expected 10 crore.

In May, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Centre had projected that 55 crore doses of Covaxin -- or an average of 10 crore monthly doses, would be available during August-December. A month later, this was slashed by 20% to eight crore. However, the monthly capacity for August and September is far lower.

This puts a question mark on the company's ability to boost production and supply the numbers as per its commitment. Interestingly, there has been a huge mismatch in the capacity projected both by the company and government, and what has been supplied so far.

Queries sent by TOI to the company on September 24 seeking details of its capacity remained unanswered.

Concerns around the supply of Covaxin have persisted over the last few months, with Serum Institute-manufactured Covishield accounting for over 90% of all vaccines administered. About one crore daily doses are required to vaccinate the entire 94 crore eligible population by December 31.

Over the last few months, there has been no clarity on its output, with different figures being cited by the company and Centre on multiple occasions.

For instance, in May the Centre’s affidavit in the Supreme Court said, “Bharat Biotech has increased production from 90 lakh a month to 2 crore doses a month and further increase is expected up to 5.5 crore doses a month by July 2021.”

In May again, the Department of Biotechnology said the existing capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin will be doubled by May-June and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by August. It was to be increased from one crore doses in April to six to seven crore doses in July and reach nearly 10 crore a month by September this year.
Then, in July, the government put out three different sets of numbers in the Rajya Sabha: one crore, 1.75 crore and 2.5 crore as the company’s monthly output.

And, in August, the government said the monthly production capacity of Covaxin is projected to be increased to around 5.8 crore by December from 2.5 crore doses.

With the onset of the deadly second wave in March, capacity issues by both Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech led to massive stockouts across the country. The government-initiated efforts to boost Covaxin production-- much later --by roping in Indian Immunologicals, Haffkine Biopharmaceuticals and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals, which will take time to ramp up.
The vaccine, developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, was approved by India’s drug regulator on January 3.

Facing flak over the slow pace of scaling up earlier, the company said the timeline for manufacturing, testing and release for a batch is approximately 120 days.

But even nine months later, Bharat Biotech is refusing to address questions over how it has repeatedly failed to fall short of target.