IIL to begin production of drug substance for Covaxin under Mission COVID Suraksha

he central government will support Hyderabad based Indian Immunological limited (IIL) with grants under the Mission COVID Suraksha for developing drug substance to make Bharat Biotech’s covid-19 vaccine covaxin.

A technical collaboration agreement has been reached between IIL, a facility under the PSU, National Dairy Development Board and Bharat Biotech, for IIL to supply of the drug substance required the for manufacturing Covaxin Vaccine to Bharat Biotech, the ministry of science and technology said in a statement on Friday.

“The IIL is planning to start the production of drug substance for Covaxin from next month, June 15, and send out the first batch to Bharat Biotech limited by July,” Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director of Indian Immunological Limited, said.

Stating that Indian Immunologicals is expected to produce the drug substance for about 10-15 million doses per month, Kumar said it will be initially 2-3 million doses and will be scaled up to 6-7 million per month later in the year.

“We are converting the Karkapatla manufacturing unit of IIL near Hyderabad into a Bio Safety Level -3 (BSL3) facility for the production of the drug substance and is also taking up construction of another block. The IIL is also working on another COVID -19 vaccine and the animal trials are underway currently and is expected to come out by next year for human vaccination,” said Kumar.

Under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India, to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines. This is being implemented by Department of Biotechnology. The Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), Hyderabad has been sanctioned grant of Rs. 60 crore towards enhancing production capabilities.