August 3, 2020
Wockhardt has acquired the fill-and-finish capacity for the vaccine jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
An exclusive production line has been prepared for the COVID-19 vaccine by the UK Government at Wrexham.
The capacity will see the production of 600 million doses for distribution in India and 400 million for the UK.
Previous initiatives by India to mitigate the COVID-P19 pandemic include the development of SARS-COV2 vaccine.
Media reports citing an official announcement reveal that Indian pharmaceutical entity Wockhardt will supply CoVid-19 vaccines to the United Kingdom. As Wockhardt has acquired the fill-and-finish capacity, the company will supply vaccines including the one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. An exclusive production line for the fill-and-finish capacity has been prepared by the Government of the UK at Wrexham such that supply can be secured for the 18 months to come. Habil Khorakiwala, Chairman at Wockhardt confirmed the overall capacity of the fill-and-finish facility to be at 1 billion, with 600 million doses reserved for distribution in India and 400 million for the UK.
Aggressive efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 have been led by the Government of India through the healthcare sector and collaboration with leading startups across the country. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has pledged an amount of US$15 million towards GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance during the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 on June 4. National efforts at the development of vaccines have facilitated the development of the SARS-COV2 by the CSIR – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). The use of the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) enabled experts to obtain the results of the test while it was ongoing.
Meanwhile, an MoU between The Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) and the Tata Sons has facilitated the ongoing development of the FNCAS9 Editor-Linked Uniform Detection Assay (FELUDA) kit for the easy detection of COVID-19. Aggressive initiatives to test for COVID-19 have been complemented by healthcare infrastructure consisting of 9,909 COVID Care Centres, 2,611 Dedicated CoVid Healthcare Centres, and 1,201 Dedicated COVID Hospitals. Additionally, the Aarogya Setu app introduced by the Government of India has aided citizens in assessing the state of their health and promotes contact tracing through Bluetooth functionalities.