On the flip side, BBIL is on a capacity expansion spree. The annual capacity for Covaxin is expected to reach 700 million doses annually by June-July, up from 200 million now. Three more BSL-3 (Biosafety level 3) facilities are being readied, of which one 100-million facility is coming up near the existing facility in Hyderabad’s Genome Valley. The other two are coming up at Bengaluru and Ankleshwar (in Gujarat).

Virchow Biotech is one of the three-four Indian companies the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a sovereign wealth fund that funded the development of Sputnik V, has signed a deal with to contract-manufacture the vaccine. RDIF hopes to source at least 300 million doses annually from India and has signed up a few vaccine makers, including Virchow and Hetero Biopharma, both from Hyderabad.

Apart from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), which is conducting clinical trials for Sputnik V in India, several other pharma/vaccine companies such as Wockhardt, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax, and Biological E. have joined the vaccine race.

Interestingly, all idling capacity across India is being roped in for vaccine production. The mad rush for the Covid-19 vaccine has turned out to be a lifeline for some fund-starved pharma companies.

The frenzy over Covid-19 vaccines has helped immunisation programmes in India to gain strength, with more people willing to come forward for vaccination. “Vaccines will be widely accepted by people. The market for other vaccines for dengue, HPV, and influenza will grow faster with more people now open to inoculating themselves,” says Fernandes.

“We have seen the vaccine market evolve. It’s a complete transition today far from the traditional way of vaccine making. Earlier, we used to make vaccines by killing, mutating or partly damaging bacteria and viruses. Then came the purified vaccine, or what is called a sub-unit vaccine. Now the new concept of vector vaccine has arrived, thanks to the development of adenovirus vector vaccine for Covid-19. This vector vaccine concept can be replicated for other vaccines to develop much more effective vaccines that are easier to manufacture and store,” says Fernandes.

Virchow Biotech is another company that is developing a vaccine indigenously. Being developed in association with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the World Bank-funded National Biopharma Mission (NBM), the vaccine is at a pre-clinical trial stage.

What if Covid-19 becomes extinct soon? Experts do not rule out such a possibility. “In my opinion, the Coronavirus may disappear by 2022. And the government may have to suspend the immunisation programme in the next 12 months,” adds Reddy.

The next few months will be crucial for Covid-19 vaccine makers. They will have to strike while the iron is hot.

Hetero Biopharma

Covid-19 vaccines: India to face a problem of plenty