Bengaluru: India can produce 70-100 million doses of Covishield per month whereas it can produce 150 million doses of Covaxin per year. This was revealed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to the Rajya Sabha. The department presented the information in response to an inquiry of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change regarding the status of current vaccine production capacity of the country with respect to the two approved vaccines. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also inquired as to when these vaccines would be made available to non-priority population, OpIndia notes. 

“The inactivated vaccine candidate, COVAXIN, developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has a planned production capacity of 150 million doses per year”, the department of Biotechnology told the panel. “The estimated manufacturing capacity of the non-replicating viral vector vaccine, COVISHIELD, by the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, is about 70-100 million doses per month,” it noted. 

India exports vaccines to several countries: 

While India has inoculated more than a crore citizens till date, it is also be to be noted that India has been sending vaccines to several countries. Till date, it has exported several lakh doses to more than 30 countries, emphasising that it is the vaccine pharmacy of the world. 

India began second phase of the vaccination drive on March 1. This time, it gives priority to those above 60 with comorbidities. 

Till last week, India had supplied 464.29 lakh made-in-India Covid-19 vaccines to 47 countries. Out of these doses, 71.25 lakh were supplied as a gift and 393.04 lakh were supplied commercially.

It is important to note that India also inoculated 2 million people in a span of just 24 hours since the drive began. 

Several leaders have expressed their gratefulness to India for its phenomenal efforts.