The government on Thursday, 7 October, allowed Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) to export 10 lakh Covishield doses each to Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech will export 10 lakh doses of Covaxin to Iran under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme in October, official sources told news agency PTI.
Moreover, SII has also been allowed to supply a bulk of around 3 crore doses of Covishield vaccine, to AstraZeneca in the UK.
Citing contractual obligation with AstraZeneca, Prakash Kumar Singh, who is the government and regulatory affairs director at SII had sought permission from Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in August to supply bulk concentrated solution of Covishield to the UK-based firm.
Singh added that SII is legally bound to supply bulk/fill finish vaccine to AstraZeneca as per their demand from time to time, PTI reported.
Mandaviya had announced on 20 September that India will resume export of surplus COVID-19 vaccines in the fourth quarter of 2021 under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme in order to meet its commitment to the COVAX global initiative.
Meanwhile, SII has enhanced its manufacturing capacity of Covishield to more than 20 crore doses per month, PTI reported. In October, SII will be able to supply around 22 crore doses, it informed the Centre.
For Bharat Biotech, the per month production capacity is around 3 crore doses of Covaxin. However, its expected to be ramped up to 5 crore in the coming months.
SII had also informed the Centre that it will touch supplies of more than 130 crore doses, by completing supply of 66 crore doses of Covishield by 31 December.
Further, the official source quoted Singh as saying, “We believe in the clarion call of ‘vocal for local’ given by our prime minister and we are continuously working on this to make our country Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
So far, India has provided over 93 crore COVID vaccine doses to citizens, while over 25 crore people have been fully vaccinated.
(With inputs from PTI)
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