Hyderabad emerges as global coronavirus vaccine capital

Hyderabad: Hyderabad has proved its prowess in the field of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and emerged as the vaccine capital of the world. Already known as the bulk drug capital of India, it witnessed manufacturing of lifesaving COVID-19 drugs like Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir by some of the top pharma companies based here.

Today, almost all the vaccines being developed in the country for the pandemic have a Hyderabad connect. Four of the six companies developing COVID vaccines in India are based in Hyderabad. Bharat Biotech at Genome Valley is currently conducting Phase III clinical trials of India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin'. Bharat Biotech claimed to have excellent track record of innovation with more than 140 global patents, a wide product portfolio of more than 16 vaccines, 4 bio-therapeutics, registrations in more than 116 countries and WHO Pre-qualifications. Another city-based firm Biological E last month initiated clinical trial of its COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate in India following approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). BE is making the vaccine in collaboration with Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a US-based vaccine focused biopharmaceutical company, and Baylor College of Medicine, a health sciences university in Houston. Biological E has also signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to produce the latter's vaccine at its vaccine production facilities and sell them both in India and export across various global markets. Indian Immunologicals, a human and animal vaccines maker, too is developing a vaccine for COVID. Hyderabad-based pahrma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories is conducting clinical trials of Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia's sovereign wealth fund, has collaborated with Dr Reddy's to conduct clinical trials and distribute the vaccine in India.

Industry minister KT Rama Rao has pointed out that Hyderabad is already manufacturing more than two billion doses of vaccines every year, which is one-third of the global vaccine output. The city, with its strong ecosystem, has played a critical role in making India self-sufficient in the medicine manufacture. It accounts for 40 per cent of the total Indian bulk drugs and 50 per cent of the bulk drug exports. Hyderabad is already home to more than 800 life sciences companies and the sector employs over 1,20,000 pharmaceutical professionals.

It is said to be the only city in the country to house more than 20 incubation centres focused only on life sciences and health-tech. More than 200 start-ups are also working on innovative solutions in healthcare. With Hyderabad Pharma City also likely to be operational soon, the city is looking to ramp-up production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and thus develop a cluster to help the country compete with China. The new project is expected to create 1,70,000 direct jobs and 5,60,000 indirect jobs.