Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, GoI, launches first commercial batch of COVAXIN manufactured in Ankleshwar, Gujarat

Hyderabad, Sunday, August 29, 2021: Bharat Biotech, a global leader in vaccine development and innovation, today announced the commercial launch of the first batch of COVAXIN® from its Chiron Behring Vaccines facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. Hon'ble Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the COVAXIN® batches. Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech and Mrs. Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech were also present at the launch.

The company has already deployed multiple production lines at its Hyderabad, Malur, Bengaluru, and Pune campuses, and the addition of Chiron Behring, Ankleshwar will further augment its COVAXIN production capacity. A new filing facility constructed during 2020 is now being utilized for the production of COVAXIN®. The COVAXIN production had begun in early June, before which the team had executed engineering batches to study the equipment functionality at the facility. Chiron Behring Vaccines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Biotech.

Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said, "India is focused on slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the country, and the key to achieving this lies in the swift and efficient administration of vaccines. We want to ensure equitable access of the vaccine to every Indian citizen, and the expansion of COVAXIN production facilities by Bharat Biotech will take us closer to this goal."

Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, "We want to ensure that Bharat Biotech can ably meet the demand for COVAXIN® such that individuals across the country, and the globe, have access to the vaccine and can secure their health and safety. Our goal to develop a vaccine with global safety and efficacy standards has now been achieved, we are now marching towards the goal of annualized capacity of ~ 1.0 billion doses."

Mrs. Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, "It is with great pleasure that we welcome Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, to our specialised manufacturing facility. I am happy to share that our efforts over the last one year have fructified, and we are now several steps closer to achieving our goal of providing COVAXIN to all pockets of the country and overseas. The pandemic has impacted people across the globe, and it is only through collaborative efforts that we can hope to mitigate its spread and impact."

Bharat Biotech is also exploring manufacturing partnerships with its partners in other countries, who have prior expertise with commercial scale manufacturing of inactivated viral vaccines under biosafety containment for further augmentation.