New Delhi:
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume and which is conducting trials of Covid vaccine candidates prior to mass production, took to Twitter today to highlight challenges in production and distribution. of vaccines in the country.
“Quick question: Will the government of India have Rs 80 billion available in the next year? Because that is what the Ministry of Health needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next worrying challenge that we must tackle, “Mr. Poonawalla said.
“I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide vaccine manufacturers both in India and abroad to meet the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution,” he added.
I ask this question because we need to plan and guide vaccine manufacturers both in India and abroad to serve the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution.
– Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) September 26, 2020
Covishield, the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and being tested for IBS in India, is currently in phase 2 and phase 3 human trials.
In July, when Poonawalla spoke to NDTV, he suggested that the Covishield vaccine, if available, would cost around 1,000 rupees. She also said that India would receive around 30 million doses per month and that it could take up to two years for the entire country to be inoculated.
However, as Bloomberg noted in his report, there are concerns about warehousing and delivery barriers, points that Poonawalla appeared to be raising in his tweets today. Bloomberg also noted that India “did not have the experience and infrastructure for mass immunization in all age groups.”
During his Independence Day speech last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that when a viable vaccine was ready, the government had a plan to ensure it reached all Indians.
“Three vaccines are in different stages of testing. When scientists give the go-ahead, we are ready with a production plan. How the vaccine will reach all Indians in the shortest time possible – we have a roadmap ready for that.” . said the Prime Minister.
Last week the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the government planned to use the Universal Immunization Program (UIP), which was introduced in India in 1978 as the Expanded Program on Immunization and covers all the districts in a staggered manner, to distribute the vaccine.
In addition to Covishield, other candidate vaccines are also being tested across the country.
Indigenous vaccine developers Bharat Biotech, for example, are in phase 2 trials with COVAXIN and Zydus Cadila is awaiting approvals for phase 3 clinical trials.
India’s rush to develop vaccines is understandable: The country has seen more than 80,000 new cases every day in recent weeks and has more than 9.6 billion active cases (the United States alone has more).
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