After receiving permission to make Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical said it would take least at one year’s time for the company to start actual production.

A top official said the state-run company is targeting to produce 22.8 crore vials of the vaccine per year.

Speaking to reporters here, Dr Sandeep Rathod, MD, Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation said, “Our target is to produce around 22.8 crore vaccine vials but it will take one year for us to start production.” Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and the ICMR have developed Covaxin, one of the two vaccines being used in the ongoing nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

‘And now we received a contract to produce the vaccine at our Parel facility in Mumbai,’ he said.

‘A proposal was submitted in January this year owing to the rising cases of coronavirus and the need for more vaccines to immunise a large number of people. It is an ambitious project which is important from the angle of vaccination of such a large population,” said the managing director of the Maharashtra government undertaking.

“There will be an internal team as well as a technical team to set up the facility for production of raw materials. Once we receive all the clearances from the Centre about safety and quality standards, we will start vaccine production,” he said.

‘The installed capacity of the new facility will be 22.8 crore vials per year and we will make optimum use of it,’ Dr Rathod said.