Mumbai's Haffkine gets nod to produce Covaxin

The Maharashtra government has finally granted approval to Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd to manufacture Covaxin, the vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, after nearly 1.5 months.

The Haffkine Institute For Training, Research & Testing, located in the Parel area of Mumbai, is where India’s first clinical trial was held in 1899 when legendary scientist Dr Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine invented the plague vaccine.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about producing vaccines in Haffkine, and was corresponding regularly with the Centre.

Read | Govt approves vaccine production at Haffkine

The Haffkine Institute has the capacity to roll out 22 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses annually.

At the Cabinet meeting, the government gave approval to the project. “We have given approval for production of Covaxin at the Haffkine Institute,” state’s Public Health and Family Welfare Minister Rajesh Tope said.

“With the help of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology, a project is going to be set up by Haffkine at Parel in Mumbai for manufacturing Covaxin in collaboration with Bharat Biotech. The project has a capex of Rs 154 crore. The state Cabinet approved the allocation of Rs 94 crore from the Contingency Fund towards the proposed capex. The central government sanctioned Rs 65 crore,” official sources said.

Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd Managing Director Sandeep Rathod will steer the project.

Earlier this month, the government had approved production of Covaxin in Mumbai on a technology-transfer basis.