In response to rising demand for COVID vaccines, Bharat Biotech said on Friday that producing and supplying Covaxin takes time because various procedures and approvals must be in place before it can be used for vaccination. The Hyderabad-based vaccine company stated that a batch of Covaxin takes about 120 days to manufacture, test, and release, depending on the technology framework and regulatory guidelines to be followed.
The company’s statement comes amid the shortage of COVID jabs in the country and demand from various states to enhance the production of vaccines. “As a result, production batches of Covaxin that began in March of this year will only be available for supply in June,” it said in a statement, adding that the manufacturing, testing, release, and distribution of vaccines is a complex and multi-factorial process involving hundreds of steps that necessitates a diverse pool of human resources.
According to the business, highly organised efforts from foreign supply chains, suppliers, regulators, and state and federal government agencies are needed for vaccines to result in actual vaccination of citizens. Vaccine production scale-up is a gradual process that involves many GMP regulatory SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures of Good Manufacturing Practices). Covaxin takes four months to convert into actual vaccination, according to the report.
According to the company, all vaccines supplied in India are required by law to be submitted for testing and release to the Central Drugs Laboratory, according to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) guidelines. The company said that all batches of vaccines supplied to state and federal governments are based on the allocation process obtained from the federal government, and that vaccine supplies take about two days to enter state and federal government depots from the company’s facilities. The vaccines obtained at these depots must then be distributed by state governments to different districts within their states, which takes an additional amount of days, according to the study.
Governments administer pandemic vaccines to all segments of the population in an equitable manner. Vaccines are then distributed to recipients over a period of time, depending on demand, until they are accessible at vaccination centres,” it continued.
