"It is a matter of pride for us": Health Secy on visting OPV manufacturing unit in Netherlands

Amsterdam [Netherlands], April 25 (ANI): Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra on Wednesday visited the manufacturing unit of Bilthoven Biologicals at Utrecht, Netherlands, an arm of the Pune-based Serum Institute of India that manufactures oral polio vaccines (OPV).

"It is a matter of pride for us to visit an Indian company, which is manufacturing vaccines at Bilthoven, Netherlands," said Chandra. 

Earlier in the day, an agreement was signed under which Bharat Biotech will collaborate with Netherlands-based Bilthoven Biologicals, a wholly-owned arm of Serum Institute of India and procure drug substances for manufacturing oral polio vaccines to be supplied within India and globally," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press release.

"This will contribute to the supply of oral polio vaccines. With this partnership, the capacity of BBIL to manufacture Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) will be increased to 500 million doses every year," the press release added.

Further, it stated that the Serum Institute of India acquired this company about 10 years back and has increased its capacity from 1 crore vaccines a year to now more than 50 crore a year. This company will be the facility to provide vaccines in case another pandemic strikes in future in the European Union.

Referring to the agreement, the Health Secretary said, "This company has the capacity to provide oral polio vaccines to India which will be then subsequently bottled in India by a collaboration between Serum Institute of India and Aaragh Biotech."

"Till now the raw material for oral polio vaccines was obtained only from one company based in Indonesia. So it will be a matter of pride for us that Indian company will be supplying oral vaccines to India in future," he added.

Earlier in the day Union Health Secretary met with CEO Juergen Kwik and CEO of Poonawalla Science Park (PSP) at Bilthoven, Jef De Clercq, on EU pandemic preparedness partnership and collaboration on the production of vaccines.

He also met the senior management and was briefed on the various manufacturing units of the facility. A detailed presentation was made on their future manufacturing plans. Bilthoven Biologicals manufactures pharmaceutical products such as vaccines for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-polio, and tetanus along with bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG). (ANI)