Small contract manufacturers wait to take a shot at Covid vaccines

A host of lesser-known vaccine makers are eyeing contract manufacturing opportunities for global and domestic majors

As India, the world’s vaccine factory, gears up to produce more Covid-19 vaccines — both indigenous and foreign — the stage is set for the smaller contract manufacturers to step in. Foreign vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccines are expected to enter India, but the government has indicated that it would expect that these vaccines would be eventually manufactured here.

Does India have the capacit­i­es and the expertise to make these vaccines based on new technology?

“India has enough fill and finish capacities, and there are several players such as Indian Immunologicals or even Lupin, which have evinced