"Quality Issues Behind Covaxin Shortage": Government Vaccine Panel Chief

Supply of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been slowed down because the first few batches at the company's newest facility in Bengaluru were not of the right quality, a top official has said.

As the government struggles to ramp up the production of Covid shots to meet its target of vaccinating all adults by the year-end, the supply of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been slowed down because the first few batches at the company's newest facility in Bengaluru were not of the right quality, a top government adviser has said. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Covid task force member NK Arora admitted that the government was banking on a much sharper rise in the production of Covaxin - one of the two main vaccines in use in India - but was set back because of the quality issues at what is the company's biggest plant globally. "Vaccine manufacturing is almost like rocket science. We were expecting a much sharper rise in the production of Covaxin. They have started a new facility in Bengaluru. In addition three public sector undertaking are also working together to augment the total output. Ultimately we are expecting 10-12 crore doses from Bharat Biotech," said Dr Arora, who heads the Covid working group. "The Bangalore plant was one of the largest vaccine manufacturing plants globally. But the initial couple of batches did not pass quality issues... It was not of the right quality. But the third and fourth batches have now come up which have moved forward. We hope in the next four or six weeks the vaccine production will really ramp up from Bharat Biotech," he told NDTV.