Infra upgrade required for Chengalpattu plant to produce Covid vax: MoS

CHENNAI: The Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) in Chengalpattu would require infrastructural upgrade and additional equipment to be able to produce Covid vaccines, said Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

She was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha by North Chennai MP Kalanidhi Veerasamy. He asked the ministry whether the Centre was aware that the state-of-the-art IVC has been lying idle for nine years and that it has the capacity to produce one billion vaccines a year, enough to meet the demand of Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country. The MP also demanded to know when it would be functional.

“Repurposing (the IVC) for production of Covid vaccines would require certain modifications in the infrastructure like upgrading existing bio-safety level facilities with certain additional equipment, depending upon the technology and vaccine platform taken up for production,” the minister replied.

The minister added that HLL Biotech Ltd, a Government of India enterprise that owns the plant, has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from vaccine/pharmaceutical manufactures for use of the plant. HLL is also in dialogue with some interested parties for utilising this facility. The EoI floated by HLL, however, had no takers. 

Official sources in the State government said, “The State had asked the Centre either to run the plant or hand it over to the State government. We could look into the technical upgrades if it is handed over to us.” When Express visited this 100-acre plant in July, it was bereft of any staff. A look at the plant showed that most of the buildings and rooms, were locked.