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As the world is set to brace for a new year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is poised to emerge as a’saviour’ from the killer virus, with as many as five vaccine manufacturing companies based in Hyderabad racing to bring out an antidote.
The vaccine development process by Bharat Biotech, Biological E Ltd and Aurobindo Pharma are now in various stages, while Dr Reddy’s and Hetero have tie-ups for producing the vaccine.
Some of these companies have also drawn up plans to scale up their vaccine production capacities.
Besides vaccine makers, the International Airport has also stepped up the cold-chain infrastructure for vaccine transport.
GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC is in discussions with various stakeholders towards meeting particular requirements of export and import of COVID-19 vaccines.
A recent visit of over 60 envoys to vaccine production centers of Bharat Biotech and BE establishes the fact that the city will be in the forefront in making and supplying vaccines for COVID-19 which is rocking the world with over 77 million cases and nearly two million deaths as of today.
Udaya Bhaskar, director-general of Pharmexcil, a pharma exports advertising body under the department of commerce, said as there’s no policy in place in terms of COVID-19 vaccine exports to other countries, it can be assumed that the centre may ensure that domestic demand is fulfilled before allowing vaccine makers to export.
“All these vaccine makers, except Bharat Biotech, are having manufacturing or development tie-ups with foreign businesses. We do not know the agreement details concerning what amount will be exported from India. Telangana Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao said though the companies are located in Hyderabad, the state won’t get preference in vaccine allocation as it will be decided by the Centre.
It’ll be decided by the center only. They will devise a method to allot the amount of doses and states will become so,” the official told PTI.
The town’s prominence accentuated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited a centre of Bharat Biotech Genome valley on November 28 and reviewed the progress of Covaxin, a vaccine candidate for COVID-19.
Apart from Covaxin, BB is also in the process of coming out with a vaccine that would be intranasal.
Biological E Ltd has entered into an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, part of pharma major Johnson& Johnson for the creation and enhancement of production capabilities to manufacture the latter’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, currently in Phase 1/2 of clinical trials.
International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, recently announced a loan of up to USD 30 million (around $220 crore) to BE to encourage its growth of low- priced, generic vaccines for routine immunisation of children and increase capacity to manufacture any future COVID-19 vaccine.
Aurobindo Pharma expects to commercialise its vaccine manufacturing facility in Hyderabad by April-May next year and is investing around $275 crore on the center, which would be utilized to create vaccines for the treatment of various viral diseases, including COVID-19.
A leading official of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology had previously said three CSIR labs CCMB-Hyderabad, Institute of Medical Technology, Chandigarh, and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology Kolkata, are developing vaccine candidates using different technology platforms.
Aurobindo will undertake clinical development and commercialization of the vaccines.
In September 2020, Dr.Reddys and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine and rights for distribution of the first 100 million doses in India. Pharma major Hetero also has a tie-up with RDIF to manufacture over 100 million doses of Sputnik V per annum. The city-based firms also played a critical role in supplying bulk drugs and formulations for some of the prescribed medications for COVID-19 like Remdesivir and Favipiravir.
