The Union government Wednesday permitted the BIBCOL unit in Uttar Pradesh to manufacture Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL) will produce 2 crore units per month at its plant in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
The government also approved a monetary assistance of INR 30 crore to facilitate production.
BIBCOL was established in 1989 to manufacture oral polio vaccines and immunisers.
Currently two vaccines, Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, are being administered in the country.
The Union government has taken multiple steps to ramp up the production of the two vaccines.
Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have been provided monetary assistance of INR 4500 crores to speed up the production of vaccines.
Bharat has administered about 18 crore doses so far.
The states have been given the permission to procure vaccines on their own in addition to the ones provided by the Union government.
Russian vaccine, Sputnik, has also been given the emergency use authorization.
