COVID-19: Wockhardt in discussions with vaccine developers to offer manufacturing facilities

Drug firm Wockhardt on Tuesday said it is in discussions with a number of global COVID-19 vaccine developers to offer drug substance as well as fill and finish manufacturing facilities to them.

Drug firm Wockhardt on Tuesday said it is in discussions with a number of global COVID-19 vaccine developers to offer drug substance as well as fill and finish manufacturing facilities to them. According to the company, the UK government has reserved one fill and finish production line at Wockhardt UK for its exclusive use for 18 months in order to guarantee the supply of vaccines required to fight against COVID-19.

At first, AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine will be manufactured at the UK facility. The company will start manufacturing the vaccine in the next few days, or in a week or two. The UK government wants 100 million doses to be manufactured in the next few months, which the company will manufacture and supply to them, Wockhardt said. "We are in discussions with a number of vaccine developers worldwide offering both drug substance, and fill and finish manufacturing, because most of the companies want drug substance as well as formulation product," Wockhardt Founder Chairman Habil Khorakiwala said during a virtual media conference.

The company is offering such options as a contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) activity or as distribution rights, depending on what they want, he added. "Making vaccines available is going to be a challenge, at least in the emerging markets and we want to fill in the gap as much as we can," Khorakiwala said.

The company has more than a billion dosage capacity for both API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient), and fill and finish, globally, he added. On whether the company was in discussions with the Indian government, he said, "we did talk to some of the people who take decisions in the government and made them aware that we have the fill and finish facility at that point in time, so they are aware of what we have".

In India, Wockhardt has a large manufacturing facility at Aurangabad which has a capacity of one billion doses. The facility can manufacture both drug substances as well as fill and finish products, he added. Fill and finish is the process of filling vials with vaccine and finishing the process of packaging the medicine for distribution.

Shares of Wockhardt Ltd rose nearly two per cent to close at Rs 460.10 on BSE.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)