NEW DELHI, May 13: The central government with consent from the Hyderabad-based Covaxin vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech haven invited other interested companies to produce the vaccine to ramp up production in the country.
The top government advisor Dr VK Paul said on Thursday said the central government and Bharat Biotech were willing to invite other companies which want to produce it. Dr Paul said the decision has been taken to scale up the vaccine production.
“People say that Covaxin be given to other companies for manufacturing. I am happy to say that Covaxin manufacturing company (Bharat Biotech) has welcomed this when we discussed it with them. Under this vaccine live virus is inactivated and this is done only in BSL3 labs,” said Dr Paul.
“Not every company has this. We give an open invitation to companies who want to do this. Companies that want to manufacture Covaxin, should do it together. The government will assist so that capacity is increased,” he added.
Talking about the vaccination coverage in his presentation NITI Aayog member emphasised that one-third of the population aged 45 years and above are now covered.
Many states in the country have said that there is a shortage of Covid-19 vaccine which has caused them to stop ongoing inoculation drive. Worst-affected Maharashtra and Delhi are among these states. Karnataka too announced on Thursday that it has stopped the vaccination drive.
Highlighting the latest feat achieved by the country, Dr Paul disclosed that nearly 18 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in India, whereas, in the US, the number stands around 26 crore which shows that India stands in the third position in the overall vaccination tally in the world.
Dr Paul said the department of biotechnology, and other departments concerned, and the ministry of external affairs have been in touch with vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
The Centre on Thursday reiterated that any vaccine which is approved by United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) can come to India. The announcement was made Dr Paul, who also heads the national expert group on vaccines.
“Import license will be granted within 1-2 days. No import license is pending,” Dr Paul said. Last month, the central government had fast-tracked approvals for Covid-19 vaccines cleared for use in the US, the UK, the European Union and Japan.
As the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, India exported more than 65 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative but supplies have slowed to a trickle since March as domestic infection rates surged.
Dr Paul said the department of biotechnology, and other departments concerned, and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) have been in touch with vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
“They were officially asked if they’d like to send doses to or manufacture in India. The government told them that it will find partners and assist them. They said they are working in their own way and they would talk of vaccine availability in Q3, in 2021,” said Dr Paul.
“We are connected to them. I’m hopeful that they’ll step forward to increase availability in India,” he said.
He further said 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August and December. “There should be no doubt, vaccine will be available for all as we move forward,” said Dr Paul.
Many states have claimed shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and have either stalled or cut back on plans to vaccinate people in the age group of 18-44. Eleven states have so far opted for floating of global tenders to get Covid-19 vaccines.
These states have asked the Centre to changes its vaccination policy and allow other manufacturers to make Covid-19 vaccine to meet the target of a populous country like India.
India has so far been using Covishield – made by AstraZeneca – and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for its nationwide inoculation drive. Dr Paul said on Thursday that Russia’s Sputnik V – the third vaccine which was given emergency use approval by India’s drugs regulator – will be available in the market from next week.
Dr Paul said Sputnik V will also be produced in India from July onwards. India is looking to produce 15.6 crore doses of the Russian vaccine. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is the Indian partner of the Russian vaccine.
Dr VK Paul said, “We will have 2 billion doses [of Sputnik V] in the next five months – made by India and used by India.”
With an efficacy of 91.6 per cent, Sputnik V was the first vaccine against Covid-19 in the world. Clinical trial data published in The Lancet indicated that the vaccine “appears safe and effective”.
Dr Paul pointed out that earlier Pfizer Inc. wanted to go by their own rules for which the talks failed. “They said that they will speak in the third quarter of the year,” Paul said.
It was mentioned that India is holding talks with Moderna too and US-based Johnson & Johnson has agreed to India’s offer to work with Indian companies to produce Covid vaccine doses. “We are glad,” stated Dr Paul.
(Manas Dasgupta)
