New Delhi: The Union Government and vaccine production company Bharat Biotech are willing to invite other companies to meet the shortage of Covid – 19 vaccines availability in the country.

NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said to scale up the Covaxin vaccination in the country to prevent Covid – 19. It should be given to other companies for manufacturing. I am happy to say that Covaxin manufacturing company Bharat Biotech has welcomed this when we discussed it with them, he said.

Under this vaccine, a live virus is inactivated and this is done only in BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3) labs. Not every company has this. We give an open invitation to companies who want to do this. Companies that want to manufacture Covaxin should do it together. The centre will assist so that capacity is increased, Dr Paul said.

The statement came on a day when the government announced it hoped to have more than 200 crore doses of Covid – 19 vaccines between August to December this year amid criticism that the government had mishandled the vaccine plan.