Hester Biosciences has tied up with Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech in a consortium to produce a drug used in Covaxin, the former’s MD and CEO Rajiv Gandhi, said on June 8.
Bharat Biotech has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gujarat COVID-19 Vaccine Consortium (GCVC), of which Hester Biosciences is a part.
“We have tied up with Bharat Biotech together in a consortium which involves the Gujarat government as well as another company to produce the drug substance that is inactivated bulk antigen for Covaxin vaccine, which will be supplied to Bharat Biotech and in turn they would make the final vaccine,” Gandhi told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.
“At the moment there are certain changes and renovations going on to suit the process required for manufacturing the drug substance,” he said, adding that they hope to make an application in this week itself with the drug department.
Hester Biosciences can start the production of the drug used in Covaxin in 65 to 75 days, according to Gandhi.
“Looking at the output as far as what would be produced and what would be given to Bharat Biotech, this is biological, there is no exact input-output ratio but the quantity that we should give could depend on how soon we scale up from 50 lakh drug substance equivalent to approximately 1.5 crore doses a month,” he said.
For the entire management interview, watch the video
(Edited by : Mitali Mohite)
First Published: Jun 8, 2021 6:50 PM IST