Dismissing fears of non-availability of adequate doses of Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine, an official of the manufacturer of the vaccine Biological E Limited said: “We had produced the entire quantity of 30 crore doses of Corbevax and have approximately 20 crore doses in our stock that are fully tested and available for supply immediately once we receive orders from the government.”
This statement assumed significance in the backdrop of Health Minister T. Harish Rao recently disclosing that Telangana had 8 lakh doses of Covaxin, 80,000 doses of Covishield and zero doses of Corbevax.
Speaking to The Hindu, Dr Vikram Paradkar, Executive Vice President (Technical Operations), Biological E Limited, said: “The company has supplied 10 crore doses of Corbevax to the government of India in March 2022. As per our initial vaccine manufacturing commitment of a total 30 crore doses, we have produced the entire quantity and have a stock of 20 crore ready for supply currently. In addition to this, Biological E has also manufactured additional 20 crore doses of the antigen that can be converted to Corbevax finished product quickly. These additional vaccine supplies can start within 8 weeks of future orders.”
Corbevax is a protein subunit vaccine containing receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 virus produced through a well established platform which is used for production of vaccines like Hepatitis B. The vaccine is currently priced at ₹400 at private facilities in India.
Minister for Health T Harish Rao while participating in a video conference held by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya last week urged the Centre to supply enough doses of vaccines to step up the booster dose administration.
“All our facilities are ready to supply Corbevax vaccine to meet future needs as well, if the demand increases then we have the capacity to produce 10 crore doses in a month,” added the official from Biological E Limited.
