Institute that helped fight the 1896 plague will now produce Covid jab

MUMBAI: The institute where a vaccine was developed to inoculate Bombay’s residents against the Bubonic plague of 1896 will produce Covaxin, starting next year. A day after receiving the Centre’s nod for transfer of technology from Bharat Biotech, which developed and manufactures Covaxin, to Maharashtra government-owned Haffkine Bio Pharmaceuticals Corporation Limited, the parent organisation, Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing, said it will develop a BioSafety Level 3 laboratory to begin production.

The laboratory will come up at an estimated cost of ₹154 crore, and will be equipped to produce 228 million doses annually of Covaxin, Dr Sandeep Rathod, managing director, Haffkine Institute said.

“The manufacturing of the vaccine will be done in two phases — first, we will manufacture the raw material which we call the drug substance, and second, fill and finish of the product. We will manufacture the drug substance at our BSL -3 laboratory (which will be set up), and as part of the next step, the vaccine will be filled in bottles and the product will be finished. We are looking to start production in a year,” he said.

A BSL-3 laboratory usually takes years to set up, but Rathod said the institute will aim to set one up within a year. The work undertaken in such a laboratory involves high-risk microbes that can cause potentially lethal diseases through respiratory transmission, and thus follows stringent containment protocols.

For instance, the exhaust air from the laboratory cannot be recirculated, and the premises must have sustained directional airflow by drawing air from clean areas towards potentially contaminated areas.

On Thursday, Renu Swarup, secretary, department of biotechnology of ministry of science and technology issued permission for Haffkine Institute to produce Covaxin. In January, the institute had sought permission from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for transfer of technology from Bharat Biotech. ICMR and Bharat Biotech co-developed the vaccine.

In March, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow Haffkine

Institute to manufacture the vaccine. The institute’s proposal to ICMR sought funds from the state and Centre.

Dr Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine was deputed to then-Bombay to help authorities tackle the Bubonic plague outbreak in 1896. Haffkine started the Plague Research Laboratory and developed a vaccine that he first tested on himself and his assistant in January 1897. The vaccine was then rolled out to inmates of a Byculla prison – all of whom survived the epidemic and did not contract the plague.

The vaccine was then rolled out among the Parsis, one of the first communities that agreed to be vaccinated en masse. The microbiologist is also credited for having developed an anticholera vaccine. The laboratory, which was shifted to the Governor’s official residence in Parel in 1899 – a site it has occupied since then – was renamed Haffkine Institute in 1925.

The multidisciplinary institute is engaged in training, research and testing of various aspects of infectious diseases. It is credited with developing a number of prophylactics in the recent past too, including the anti-rabies serum, anti-venom serum, and oral polio vaccine.