Biovet Pvt Ltd. takes a Stride in the Production of Vaccine

Bharat Biotech’s associate firm, Biovet Pvt Ltd is putting all effort in turning the ‘fully functional’ plant in Manjari, Pune into a vaccine production unit by the end of August, according to a senior administrative official. Bharat Biotech of Hyderabad is the producer of Covaxin, one of the vaccine that is used throughout the nation for vaccinating people.

Saurabh Rao, divisional commissioner of Pune and Rajesh Deshmukh, district collector on Wednesday paid a visit to this plant.

The Bombay High Court off late gave permission to Biovet to use the ready-to-use vaccine manufacturing plant that is constructed over a 12 hectare plot at Manjari, Pune for the production of Covaxin.

Rao on Thursday stated, “The plant has a ready infrastructure. Another strength of the company is that it is very competent and has a dedicated team…I do not think there is any need to create any infrastructure to start production. Everything is in place.”

The officials from Biovet are still examining the plant’s infrastructure, he stated.

“Since vaccine manufacturing is a very sophisticated and sensitive subject and the process is absolutely scientific, they cannot take any chance.”

The commissioner opined, “So they are assessing the entire manufacturing line and other machinery.”

He further stated that within a period of one week, the officials from Biovet hopes to complete the assessment procedure.

Rao added, “With the kind encouragement and support the firm is getting from the Centre and the Maharashtra government about licencing, permissions, regulatory decisions, etc, they are confident of making the plant fully functional by the end of August and roll out the first batch of the vaccine.”

In the recent times, the High Court has given permission to Biovet to take charge of the vaccine manufacturing plant.

Biovet of Karnataka received a green signal from the High Court, while asking the Maharashtra government to hand over the property.

Thje High Court ordered that keeping the current scenario in mind, the concerned authorities should hand over the property to Biovet.

Intervet India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Merck & Co, a multi-national pharma company from US, wsa the owner of the plant. It used the land that it got in 1973 for manufacturing vaccine for foot and mouth disease.

Intervet had an agreement with Biovet to hand over the land and the manufacturing unit to Boivet.