In recent weeks, a great deal of public attention has been focused on the development, clinical trials and manufacture of vaccines against Covid-19. But pharmaceutical industry experts are acutely aware that even bigger challenges are awaiting them once the vaccine manufacture actually begins. One of these is the delicate task of filling the bulk vaccine produced in large quantities into smaller containers such as single-dose ampoules or multi-dose vials.
Thus a major consignment of a vaccine might be sufficient to protect thousands of people against a particular infection (whether Covid-19 or any other virus disease such as polio). But it must still be transformed into much smaller batches before it can be administered to an individual person. This is similar to the process of creating pharmaceutical formulations from bulk drugs that are sold in huge drums or forms of other packaging.
With its long experience in producing injectable medicines of different varieties, drug major Wockhardt has now decided to offer its services in manufacturing small multi-dose vials of vaccines against Covid-19. To this end, it has reached an agreement with the UK government to convert the AstraZeneca version of the vaccine into smaller containers. This activity will be carried out in Wockhardt’s Wrexham production facility in Northern Wales.
Addressing a news conference last fortnight to announce the pact, Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt, clearly pointed out that his company was not planning to produce the vaccine itself, as Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech and others were going to do. Wockhardt would also not sell its output directly in the market, either in the UK or in any other country.
-
Habil Khorakiwala. Picture credit: Sanjay Borade
