Bharat Biotech has developed capacity to make 10 mn doses of nasal vaccine against COVID-19, top exec says

Bharat Biotech has developed a capacity to manufacture over 10 million doses of its recently launched nasal vaccine iNCOVACC against COVID-19, Sai Prasad, President of Quality Operations at Bharat Biotech, told BT.

He was talking on the sidelines of BioAsia, the 20th edition of Telangana's annual flagship life sciences and healthcare event.

Dubbed as a game changer in preventing the spread of coronavirus, Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine is the first intranasal vaccine in the world to have received approval as both a primary vaccine for COVID-19 and as a booster.

“We have supplied over 3 lac doses to private sector while we have a capacity to manufacture over 10 million doses currently. We can scale up the capacity if needed. The demand for the vaccine will increase gradually,” said Prasad.

“We are targeting the Indian population that has not taken the vaccine yet and also as a booster,” said Prasad, adding that apart from the ease of not requiring a needle and, thus, specialised manpower, the nasal vaccine triggers an immune response in the nose and upper airway, right at the entry of the virus blocking infection and breaking the chain of transmission.

Further, this vaccine can also be quickly modified to combat the emerging variants of concern, said Prasad.
 
Despite all advantages, iNCOVACC is a late entrant in the COVID-19 vaccines market leaving it with a little scope of a lucrative business proposition for Bharat Biotech. When 98 per cent of the Indian population has already taken at least one dose and 92 per cent have taken both doses of other vaccines, Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine is aiming to garner revenues from the domestic market.

According to Statista’s data, India's COVID-19 vaccines market’s revenue has recorded de-growth of about 39.3 per cent in the current fiscal in comparison to 2021-22.

The Hyderabad-based drug maker has priced the nasal vaccine at Rs 800 per dose in private markets and at Rs 325 per dose for procurement by central and state governments.

According to the union ministry of health and family welfare, the government has not placed any orders so far for the Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine.

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