Mumbai (NVI): The Centre on Thursday allowed Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Haffkine Biopharma Corporation to manufacture the Covaxin shot for coronavirus, a report said. The decision was taken following Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s request to the Central government to allow the transfer of technology of the vaccine to Haffkine from Bharat Biotech.
Haffkine Biopharma is owned by the Maharashtra government. The state government had sent the proposal to the Centre in February suggesting that the infrastructure of Haffkine could be used to ramp up the number of vaccines produced in the country.
The Maharashtra government made the announcement regarding the approval through their official Twitter handle.
“The Dept of Science and Technology, Government of India, has granted approval to Haffkine Institute to produce Bharat Biotech”s Covaxin vaccine on a transfer of technology basis,” the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office tweeted.
“CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has thanked Prime Minister for approving this request,” it said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier requested the centre to allow the Haffkine Institute to produce Covaxin.
Maharashtra continued to report grim COVID-19 figures on Thursday with 61,695 new COVID-19 cases and 349 deaths in the last 24 hours.
As per the state health department, the total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 36,39,855, including 29,59,056 recoveries and 59,153 deaths.
MWS
