Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday chaired a meeting to address the challenges faced by the Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation, focusing on both the welfare of retired staff and officers as well as boosting vaccine production capacity at its Vallab Nagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad facility.
Sharing updates on X (formerly Twitter), Pawar highlighted the institute’s contributions to public health. “The Haffkine Institute has made invaluable contributions to the field of vaccine production. It has played a significant role in the eradication of polio from the country. The Government of India has a demand for 268 million doses of oral polio vaccine,” he said.
He added, “In today’s meeting, an in-principle approval was granted to provide a fund of ₹25 crore to the Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation from the two per cent cess of the Haffkine Procurement Cell for the production of these vaccines.”
Pawar also announced the formation of a high-level committee, headed by renowned scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, to strengthen the Haffkine Institute and Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation. The committee, which includes secretaries from the medical education, public health, and planning departments, has already submitted its report and will work on preparing a five-year roadmap for the empowerment of Haffkine.
The Deputy CM further highlighted the Pimpri-Chinchwad unit’s achievements in antivenom production. “The Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the Haffkine Institute, which specialises in antivenoms, currently has 1.5 lakh doses of the anti-snake venom vaccine ready. The snake venom vaccine produced by Haffkine is effective and potent. Instructions were given that the Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority should purchase these vaccines directly from Haffkine,” Pawar said.
