Tracking Covaxin: How long does it take to reach you from manufacturing unit?

How much time does it take for a COVID vaccine to get manufactured and released for public use? Additionally, how much time does it take for the ready vaccine to reach the vaccination centre?

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has said that the timeline for manufacturing, testing and release for a batch of Covaxin is approximately 120 days. Besides, it may take a few more days for the vaccine to travel from the manufacturing unit to the vaccination centre, which goes through government depots, district headquarters and other intermediaries.

This means that Covaxin vaccines, which went on the production line in February, were available for use only in May, a press release issued by the company read.

Bharat Biotech made this statement at a time when India is struggling to meet its huge demand for COVID-19 vaccines, resulting in slow pace of vaccination and even temporary halting of the drive at several places.

The company said that vaccine production is a complex and long-drawn process which involves manufacturing, testing, release and distribution, which, in turn, needs a huge and diverse human resource pool.

For vaccines to result in actual vaccination of people, highly coordinated efforts are required from international supply chains, manufacturers, regulators and state and Central government agencies, the company press release said.

The company also tried to answer questions regarding scaling up production in the wake of sudden, increased demand for vaccines. “Production scale-up of vaccines is a step-by-step process, involving several regulatory SOPs of GMP (Standard Operating Procedures of Good Manufacturing Practices),” Bharat Biotech said.

Additionally, all vaccines are necessarily submitted for testing and release to the Central Drugs Laboratory, Government of India.

On how vaccines are allocated, Bharat Biotech stated: “All batches of vaccines supplied to state and central governments are based on the allocation framework received from the Centre.” Besides, it takes around two days from the vaccines to reach the depots of the state and central governments from Bharat Biotech facilities. From these depots the vaccines are then distributed by the governments to various districts within their respective states.

(With inputs from agencies).