Maharashtra gets approval to make Covaxin at Haffkine

April 16, 2021 admn_young_news

“The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, has granted approval to Haffkine Institute to produce Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine on a transfer of technology basis,” the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office tweeted.

The Mumbai-based Haffkine Institute is owned by the Maharashtra government and the approval also came after a request by Uddhav Thackeray to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte, Department of Science and Technology Secretary Renu Swaroop, informed that the approval was given as per the recommendation of the committee of scientific experts and a period of one year has been given for the development of Covaxin.

Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation should start production as soon as possible in view of the current growing infection and demand for vaccines, the letter said.

The Haffkine Institute has the capacity to produce 22 crore doses annually. This institute has developed several vaccines against cholera, rabies, snake bites, and scorpion bites. Tests for Covid are being conducted in public and private laboratories across the state and the institute should join this effort.

The CM had said the institute should lay stress on research besides making efforts to produce a COVID-19 vaccine and efforts should be made for vaccine technology transfer from the ICMR and Bharat Biotech.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra recorded the highest one-day rise this year on Tuesday. With 17,864 new cases and 87 deaths, the caseload in the state has now risen to 23,47,328 and the death toll reached 52.