Mumbai: Homegrown Covaxin is playing a major role in vaccination against Covid-19.
But eight months after the vaccination drive began, only one in 11 Indians managed to get the first custom vaccine.
Bharat Biotech, which produced it, has failed to increase production at the speed that has been considered.
Decorated with drug deficiency and filling capacity, Hyderabad-based companies have repeatedly fell from the target set for themselves.
Among other things, it also saw a group of vaccine quality issues.
CMD Krishna Ella recently said the company will supply a dose of 5.5 crore from October, from the existing 3.5-crore doses – substantially lower than the initial 10 crore expected.
In May, in a written statement before the Supreme Court, the center has projected that 55 doses of Covaxin Crore – or the average monthly dose of 10 crores, will be available during August-December.
A month later, this is cut 20% to eight crores.
However, monthly capacity for August and September is much lower.
This places a question mark on the company’s ability to increase production and supply numbers according to its commitment.
Interestingly, there has been a large incompatibility in the capacity projected by both the company and the government, and what has been supplied so far.
The question sent by TOI to the company on September 24, which is looking for details of its capacity remains unanswered.
Concerns around the Covaxin supply have survived for the past few months, with Serum Institute-Manufacturing Covishield accounting for more than 90% of all vaccines provided.
About a daily dose of Crore is needed to vaccinate the entire population that meets 94 crore requirements on December 31.
Over the past few months, there has been no clarity about the output, with different numbers quoted by the company and the center several times.
For example, in May written in the Supreme Court said, “Bharat Biotech has increased production from 90 lakh per month to 2 crore doses a month and further increase is estimated to reach 5.5 crore doses a month at 2021.” In May again, the biotechnology department said the existing capacity of Covaxin was accidentally developed will multiply in May-June and then increased by almost 6-7 times in August.
It will increase from a dose of Crore in April to six to seven doses of crore in July and reach almost 10 crores a month in September this year.
Then, in July, the government issued three different set numbers in Rajya Sabha: one crore, 1.75 crore and 2.5 crore as a monthly monthly output.
And, in August, the government said Covaxin’s monthly production capacity was projected to be upgraded to around 5.8 crores in December from 2.5 doses of crore.
With the emergence of the deadly second wave in March, the problem of capacity by the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech caused massive inventory throughout the country.
The government initiated efforts to increase covaxin production – far later – by hanging out in the immunological India, Haffin biopharmaceutical and immunological bharat and biological, which will take the time to increase.
This vaccine, which was developed in collaboration with the Indian Medical Research Council, was approved by Indian drug regulators on January 3 around 120 days.
But even nine months later, Bharat Biotech refused to handle questions about how it repeatedly failed to fail.
Month after month, the production target is missing covaxin
