Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Hyderabad on Saturday as part of his three-city tour to take the stock of Cpvid-19 vaccine development.
After landing at Hakimpet Air Force station here, he was received by Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police and other officials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Hyderabad on Saturday as part of his three-city tour to take the stock of COVID-19 vaccine development.
After landing at Hakimpet Air Force station here, he was received by Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police and other officials.
He then proceeded to Bharat Biotech's facility located at Genome valley, a life sciences cluster about 20 km from the AF base, officials said.
The Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology is now undergoing phase-3 trials.
The vaccine is being developed and will be manufactured at Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) facility in Genome Valley in Hyderabad.
Modi will be interacting with scientists and senior management of the city-based vaccine maker on the status of Covaxin, officials said.
After his hour-long visit to the facility, the PM will proceed to Pune, where he will visit the Serum Institute of India (SII), which has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and the Oxford University for the vaccine.
Earlier this morning, Modi visited pharma major Zydus Cadila's manufacturing facility near Ahmedabad.
Wearing a PPE kit, Modi reviewed the vaccine development process at the Zydus Cadila research centre in Changodar industrial area, over 20 km from Ahmedabad.
After his arrival at Ahmedabad airport from Delhi shortly after 9 am, Modi flew to the Zydus Cadila plant and held discussions with the promoters and executives of the company, an official said.
Zydus Cadila has announced that the phase-I clinical trial of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D is over and it has commenced phase-II clinical trials from August.
Modi was extensively briefed about the vaccine development work at the plant by the company officials. He was briefed about the vaccine production procedure. He interacted with scientists and vaccine developers, an official said.
Zydus Cadila chairman Pankaj Patel recently said the company is aiming to complete the vaccine trial by March 2021 and could produce up to 100 million doses a year.
Modi spent over an hour at the plant, before leaving for the airport, from where he left for Hyderabad at 11.40 am.
The PM will be flying back to the national capital after the stopover in Pune.
