‘Globally, companies can produce 2-4 billion Covid vaccine doses by 2021 end’

Mumbai: Vaccine manufacturers globally have the capacity to produce 2-4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines till the end of 2021, according to a survey by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
The study was carried out between April 3 and June 19 to assess potential bottlenecks in manufacturing the vaccine and the global capacity available to produce them, CEPI said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the study, India has the largest capacity in the world to make drug substances, which are needed to develop vaccines, followed by Europe and North America.

A total of 113 manufacturers from over 30 countries responded to the survey.

CEPI said India has the largest production capacity for drug substances specifically for microbial or yeast expression systems; recombinant protein from suspension cells; recombinant protein from insect cells; viruses; and DNA.

Indian manufacturers participating in the survey declared that the country has the capacity to produce 6 million litres of drug substances and 6,874 million finished drug product doses. Chinese companies can manufacture 19,485 million finished doses.

There are 16 companies in India that make both drug substances and drug products, second only to the US, which has a total of 36 such manufacturers. Europe has the largest production capacity for RNA-based drug substances, which are required in newer forms of vaccine manufacturing.


The finding on potential global capacity is important for CEPI’s wider Covid-19 response. CEPI said it aims to distribute 2 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of 2021 through a programme called COVAX, in collaboration with Gavi and WHO.

It said the survey gives the organisation confidence that the target to manufacture the large doses to vaccinate healthcare workers initially can be met without displacing other critical vaccine manufacturing activities.

As reflected by the number of manufacturers with regulatory approvals for their operations, mature manufacturing capacity is available for both drug-substance and drug-product manufacturing in multiple locations around the world, CEPI said.

CEPI is a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.