New Delhi, Apr 2 (IANS): Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech on Friday announced the temporary slowing down of its Covid vaccine Covaxin's production across its manufacturing facilities.

"Bharat Biotech today announces the temporary slowing down of production of Covaxin across its manufacturing facilities, having completed its supply obligations to procurement agencies and foreseeing the decrease in demand," it said in a statement.

The company will focus on pending facility maintenance, process and facility optimisation activities for the coming period, it said.

It said that as all existing facilities were repurposed for the manufacture of Covaxin with continuous production during the past year to meet the public health emergency of Covid-19, these upgrades were due. Certain highly sophisticated equipment which were required to enhance the process stringency were unavailable during the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

"During the recent WHO post EUL inspection, Bharat Biotech agreed with the WHO team on the scope of the planned improvement activities and indicated that they will be executed as soon as practical," Bharat Biotech said.

It said it is working on further improvements and upgrades to ensure that the production of Covaxin continues to meet ever increasing global regulatory requirements.

"Since patient safety is the primary consideration for any new vaccine, there can be no compromises in meeting operational excellence objectives."