Covaxin shortage due to quality issues at newest plant: Govt task force expert

The supply crunch of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, one of India's main vaccines to fight Covid-19, is because the inaugural batches at the company's newest Bengaluru facility were not of the right quality, member of Centre's Covid-19 task force N K Arora told NDTV.

To meet its ambitious target of vaccinating all adults by December this year, the government was expecting a much higher supply from the vaccine maker, but Arora said that quality issues set the company back.

"Vaccine manufacturing is almost like rocket science. We were expecting a much sharper rise in the production of Covaxin. They have started a new facility in Bengaluru. In addition, three public sector undertakings are also working together to augment the total output. Ultimately, we are expecting 10-12 crore doses from Bharat Biotech," Arora told the news portal.

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Bharat Biotech's Bengaluru plant, which is the company's biggest facility, recently started producing better quality batches, the expert said, and it will now be able to ramp up production to match the need.

The subpar batches of vaccines were not released by the company for the Centre's inoculation campaign, Arora said. When asked if Bharat Biotech can scale up its production to meet India's demand of 30 crore vaccine doses a month, he said an "exponential increase" in production can be expected.

As a possible third wave is expected in the next two months, the government is focusing on vaccination as the main tool in the fight against Covid-19.

The total number of Covid vaccine doses administered so far as part of the nationwide vaccination drive has reached 47.85 crore.