Whether it’s Covaxin, India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate, or Russia’s Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.Cov2.S, FluGen’s CoroFlu, or even Sanofi’s in-development vaccine candidates. They all have a connection to Hyderabad.
Whether a successful Covid-19 vaccine is developed in Hyderabad or not, a vaccine developed anywhere in the world will be produced in Hyderabad, says Dr. Varaprasad Reddy, founder and president of Shantha Biotechnics Ltd.
“All of Hyderabad’s vaccine companies are strong in manufacturing technology and have the ability to manufacture millions of doses to good standards,” says Reddy, who is expecting the candidate vaccine from Sanofi in the first half of 2021, a part of the which is expected to be manufactured. in Hyderabad. Sanofi had acquired Shantha Biotechnics in 2009.
Hyderabad will be an integral part of the Covid-19 solution just because of the sheer vaccine manufacturing capabilities it houses, feels Mahima Datla, managing director of Biological E Limited, which has a link with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, to develop its own. candidate vaccine and a technology collaboration to make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine here.
‘Hyderabad well prepared to offer an affordable Covid solution’
Datla, who is also president of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), points out that most of the Covid-19 candidate vaccines are being developed by academic laboratories or non-vaccine companies, which do not have the infrastructure. necessary and We have no choice but to partner with companies from India or China.
In fact, most Hyderabad vaccine manufacturers are in informal talks for a manufacturing collaboration, so that whenever a successful candidate is developed, they can offer their manufacturing capabilities.
For example, Indian Immunologicals Ltd, a manufacturer of human and animal vaccines that was created by NDDB, has a new final filling capacity of 20 million single doses (200 million multiple doses) at Genome Valley outside of Hyderabad that is ready to deploy for third-party Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing. The company is known to be in talks with the Russians to make Sputnik V.
“Our new facilities will be ready for October-November. As our own vaccine candidate in development with Australia’s Griffith University will take around 18 months, we are keen to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines for others, ”says K Anand Kumar, Managing Director of IIL. Datla notes that since no one knows which vaccine candidate will be successful or when, most manufacturers are open to offering their capabilities to a successful candidate.
Even Aurobindo Pharma has jumped on the train of Covid-19 vaccine development with the acquisition of a US-based R&D company earlier this year and hopes to have vaccine manufacturing capacity ready by March of 2021.
IIL Deputy Director Prasanna Deshpande believes that since affordability will be key in the fight against Covid-19 given its global spread, no one is better equipped to offer this than Hyderabad given its scale of operations. The Telangana government is also excited about Hyderabad’s role in the Covid-19 battle. “As the vaccine capital of the world, we are fully committed to playing an enabling role in global Covid-19 vaccination efforts and proactively supporting our companies to rapidly increase production to serve the world,” said Jayesh Ranjan, chief secretary of industries. & ITE & C, Telangana.
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