Bharat Biotech to slow down production of Covaxin

The company said the decision has been taken as it has completed its supply obligations to procurement agencies and is foreseeing decrease in demand.

The company will now focus on pending facility maintenance, process and facility optimization activities, it said.

Bharat Biotech said that the upgrades at their facilities were due since all existing facilities were repurposed for the manufacture of Covaxin, with continuous production during the past year, in order to meet the public health emergency of Covid-19,

“Certain highly sophisticated equipment which were required to enhance the process stringency were unavailable during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.

However, it clarified that the quality of Covaxin was never compromised at any point.

During the recent WHO post EUL inspection, Bharat Biotech told the WHO team on the scope of the planned improvement activities and indicated that they will be executed soon.

The company said that they were informed by the WHO that the optimization work did not indicate a change in the risk-benefit ratio (for Covaxin) and the data, available to WHO, indicated the vaccine is effective and no safety concern exists,” the company said in a statement.

“This risk assessment by the WHO is based on the supply of hundreds of millions of doses of Covaxin globally, during which the product has demonstrated an excellent safety and efficacy profile in detailed and thorough post marketing surveillance activities,” It further said.

Notwithstanding the safety and efficacy record, the company said it is working to further improve and upgrade to ensure that the production of Covaxin continues to meet global regulatory requirements.