SII, Bharat Biotech halt production of Covid vaccines as demand slips

High inventory, lack of fresh orders behind the decision; focus on non-Covid vax

India’s two major Covid-19 vaccine makers — Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech (BB) — have halted production of Covid vaccines, and will focus on non-Covid vaccines instead.

Both these firms combined have accounted for over 98 per cent of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country. So far, 1.51 billion Covishield doses and 300 million Covaxin doses have been administered in India, which makes it 98.36 per cent of the 1.84 billion doses administered in the country.

However, with demand for vaccination going down, both companies have halted production of jabs at their facilities. Sources indicated that