The Centre had recently initiated the process of taking stock of the vaccine manufacturing capabilities of Hyderabad, a move assuming significance for the city that looks to build on its vaccine powerhouse status by playing a major role in COVID vaccine development.
“We have had some (officials) from agencies like the Department of Biotechnology trying to understand what the capacities of manufacturing in each company are,” Indian Immunologicals Managing Director K. Anand Kumar said on Friday.
Participating in a panel discussion at the Make in Telangana conference of industry body CII, he said that information on status of vaccine development, manufacturing capabilities as well as availability of the drug substance were shared.
“I think they will take all this (information) from all manufacturers, consolidate... and use it to devise the distribution strategy of vaccines,” he replied to a query from Telangana government’s director of Life Sciences Shakthi Nagappan on the developments since the State flagged to the Centre issues faced by vaccine makers and the opportunities for them.
Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao had earlier this month written to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan underscoring the need for Centre to unveil guidelines facilitating in timely development of safe and effective vaccines for COVID.
At various forums, Mr. Rao had been highlighting how Hyderabad, already manufacturing one out of every three vaccines produced globally, is poised to play a major role in COVID vaccine with three firms in the city working, with partners, on vaccine candidates. On how many vaccine doses can India manufacture, Mr. Kumar said the process of collecting the information was underway as each manufacturer used a different kind of technology.
A release said VP Minimally Invasive Therapies Group APAC and VP-MD India Subcontinent (South Asia) Medtronic Madan R. Krishnan, Sai Life Sciences Managing Director Krishna Kanumuri and Partner, Deal Advisory Head, Life Sciences Sector Sanjay Singh participated in the panel discussion.
CII said that the second day of Make in Telangana conference deliberated on growth opportunities in food processing, pharma healthcare and life sciences, among others.