MUMBAI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- India has facilitated the establishment of the recombinant vesicular stomatitis vaccine (r-VSV) manufacturing platform for the first time in the country by supporting a private company's COVID-19 vaccine development initiative, the company said on Tuesday.

The Aurobindo Pharma said in its corporate filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange that it is developing a vaccine for COVID-19, which is based on the company's proprietary replication-competent, attenuated, r-VSV delivery platform, through its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary Auro Vaccines.

"The partnership with Aurobindo is to serve the country's need for a vaccine to fight this pandemic. The government is focused on creating an ecosystem that nurtures and encourages new product innovation to address the most relevant issues to our society," said Renu Swarup, secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Indian government.

Aurobindo is in the process of setting up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for viral vaccines, which will also be used to produce the COVID-19 vaccine currently under development and going as per plan, the statement said.

The Indian government has been accelerating research in bio-pharmaceuticals at a total cost of 250 million U.S. dollars, which is co-funded by the World Bank to the extent of 50 percent to develop affordable products like vaccines, medical devices, diagnostics and bio-therapeutics to improve the health standards of the country's population.