Govt invests Rs 200 Cr in development of 2 new vaccines

Technology Development Board (TDB), Ministry of Science & Technology is supporting Hyderabad-based startup Sapigen Biologix for the development and commercialisation of two novel vaccines – Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine and RTS, S Malaria Vaccine. Under the agreement signed, TDB and Bharat Biotech have pledged the support of Rs 200 crore each to create a continuous corpus of Rs 400 crore for the development and commercialisation of the two novel vaccines. The company aims to set up a state-of-the-art cGMP facility in Bhubaneswar, in compliance with the latest global standards, for manufacturing Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine and (RTS, S) Malaria Vaccine initially and later expand the product portfolio by adding other vaccines. The company intends to produce 100 million doses/ annum of intranasal COVID-19 vaccine by April 2023 and 15 million doses/ annum RTS, S Malaria vaccine by the end of April 2025.