Cadila to produce up to 3 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses a month: Executive Sharvil Patel

India is facing a major shortage of vaccines

Cadila Healthcare is aiming to triple the monthly production of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate to as many as 3 crore doses, its managing director said on Monday, as the country battles a massive wave of infections.

The virus has killed nearly 100,000 people in May alone according to official figures, although experts say actual numbers are likely many times higher. India's Covid-19 death toll surged past 300,000 on Monday, Health Ministry data showed.

India is also facing a severe shortage of vaccines. Weekly vaccinations have fallen from a peak of nearly 2.5 crore doses in early April to about 90 lakhs. The government has pledged to make 267 crore vaccine doses available this year.

Cadila, headquartered in Ahmedabad, is looking to increase monthly production of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D to up to 3 crore doses in four to five months, from 1 crore now, according to Sharvil Patel, its managing director, in text messages sent to Reuters.

Reuters reported last month Cadila was seeking emergency use authorisation for the shot from India's regulators in May or June.

"We still think we should be able to submit (the vaccine for emergency use authorisation) in May," Patel said on Monday.

The company will use both in-house capacities as well as third-party manufacturers to boost production, he said.

ZyCoV-D is a DNA plasmid vaccine, which uses a portion of the genetic code - DNA or RNA - in the virus to stimulate an immune response.

It is undergoing late-stage trials in nearly 30,000 adults after being found safe and immunogenic in earlier studies. It is meant to be given in three doses but Cadila is also doing trials on a two-dose regimen, Patel has said previously.