Vaccine manufacturing plant to start output by May

Bhubaneswar: Commercial production at Sapigen Biologix vaccine plant in Odisha, the first such facility in the State, will commence by May this year, officials said on Sunday. The plant at Biotech Park in Andharua near here will have a capacity to produce 2.4 crore doses of different vaccines per day, they said.

“At full capacity, this facility will be the biggest vaccine-producing plant in the country,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a statement. It is expected to produce over 15 vaccines for various diseases, including cholera and malaria.

The Rs 1,500-crore vaccine plant will create direct employment for 1,500 people, with most of them being local recruits, the CMO said. The variety of vaccines produced in Bhubaneswar will be supplied to many parts of the world, it added.

V K Pandian, the Chairman of ‘5T’ – technology-led transformative initiatives – on Sunday visited the sub-units and interacted with the management and employees. He urged all government agencies to assist in the commissioning of the plant within the next three months.