Wockhardt arm inks COVID-19 vaccine supply deal with UK

The agreement with the UK will make use of the 400-million vial capacity of Wockhardt’s subsidiary, Wrexham-based CP Pharmaceuticals, according to him. While Wockhardt is expected over the next few months to fill vials with around 30 million doses of the vaccine candidate developed jointly by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, the agreement doesn’t limit its services to this candidate.

Khorakiwala said the agreement means that CP Pharmaceuticals will cater to the vaccine candidates that the UK government has entered into agreements for, including those developed by Sanofi-GSK, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIAID. “It depends on what the UK government wants. They have worked on a strategy to tie up with multiple manufacturers and they will decide … what kind of vaccine they want for themselves …,” he said.

Following talks with the Indian government, the firm is of the understanding that, as of now, it is part of the country’s vaccine management programme, he added. “We have been in touch with the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr K. VijayRaghavan, and we are in communication with him,” Khorakiwala said.