In India, Hyderabad Is COVID Vaccine Hub

HYDERABAD: With the spread of coronavirus, every company, manufacturers is trying to develop vaccines as soon as possible. There are as many as five vaccine companies in Hyderabad working on bringing out a vaccine.

With so many firms in Hyderabad working on developing a vaccine, the city might just become the ‘savior.’ The five companies, Bharat Biotech, Aurobindo Pharma, Biological E Ltd, Hetero and Dr Reddy's are the ones working on it.

Biological E Ltd, Bharat Biotech and Aurobindo Pharma are in different stages of the vaccine development. It is not just the vaccine manufacturers, even the airports are prepared. International airports have set up a proper cold-chain network to facilitate vaccine transportation.

The pandemic has taken more than 2 million lives and affected around millions of people all over the world. The companies know the responsibilities that they have. These Hyderabad based manufacturers are now the front runners for the vaccine development. They might just become the major suppliers of COVID-19 vaccine for people all over the country.

Director General of Pharmexcil, Udaya Bhaskar said that "All the vaccine makers, except for Bharat Biotech are having development or manufacturing tie ups with foreign companies. We do not know the agreement details as to what quantity will be exported from India. However, the Indian Government has the final say in this regard.”

Telangana Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao said that just because the manufacturers/companies are located in Telangana, the state will not get any preference. The decision of vaccine allocation will be taken by the central Government.

"The state has no role in vaccine allocation. It will be decided by the centre only. They will devise a method to allot the number of doses and states will get accordingly,” said Telangana Director of Public Health.