₹25 Crore for Vaccine Production to Haffkine – Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar

Deputy CM Pawar directs Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority to purchase 1.5 lakh snakebite vaccines from Haffkine

Haffkine Empowerment: Three-member committee for implementation of Dr. Mashelkar Committee’s recommendations

Mumbai, Sept 2025 : Haffkine Institute has made a valuable contribution in the field of vaccine production, and has played a major role in eradicating polio from the country. The Government of India has a demand for 268 million oral polio vaccines. To manufacture these vaccines, a fund of ₹25 crore from the two percent cess of the Haffkine Procurement Cell will be given to Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation. This proposal was given in-principle approval at a meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The meeting regarding issues of Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation and pensions of retired employees and officers of the institution was held in the committee room at Mantralaya under the chairmanship of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

Present on the occasion were Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif, Food and Drug Administration Minister Narhari Zirwal, Health Minister Prakash Abitkar, Legislative Council Member Sachin Ahir, Additional Chief Secretary of Finance Department O.P. Gupta, Principal Secretary of Planning Department Saurabh Vijay, Secretary of Medical Education and Drugs Department Dhiraj Kumar, Secretary to Deputy CM Dr. Rajesh Deshmukh, Managing Director of Haffkine Sunil Mahindrakar, Joint Secretary of Law and Justice Department Ashwini Saini, and Joint Secretary of Medical Education Department Ramchandra Dhanawade.

To empower Haffkine Institute and Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation, a committee was earlier set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar. The report of this committee has been submitted to the government. For effective implementation of the recommendations of this committee, a new committee should be constituted, comprising secretaries of the Medical Education, Public Health, and Planning Departments. The Deputy CM also directed that this committee should prepare a five-year roadmap for the empowerment of Haffkine.

At present, Haffkine has 1.5 lakh vaccines for snakebite ready. The anti-snakebite vaccine prepared by Haffkine is effective and reliable. Deputy CM Pawar further directed that these vaccines should be procured by the Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority through Haffkine.