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BANGALORE – India has bought 1.6 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines, more than any other country, according to a global analysis.
Using its enormous manufacturing influence, the country bought 500 million doses of the candidate vaccine from the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca, one billion from the American company Novavax and 100 million doses of the candidate Sputnik V from the Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia, said the US-based Duke University Center for Innovation in Global Health.
India, a middle-income country, bought more doses than high-income countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and more than the EU as a whole, all of which have vaccine development capacity in the country.
The European Union has reserved 1.58 billion doses and the United States 1.01 billion doses.
Before regulatory agencies approve any vaccine candidate, there are confirmed purchases of 7.3 billion doses of vaccines, with another 2.5 billion under negotiation.
“Many of these countries will be able to vaccinate their entire population, and some will be able to do it many times, before billions of people are vaccinated in low-income countries,” the Duke report said.
India’s 1.6 billion doses would cover 800 million people, or 60 percent of its population. In November, Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that an estimated 400 to 500 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines would be available to 250 to 300 million people in India by July-August 2021.
The Duke report explained that rich countries negotiated purchases by investing public funds in vaccine research and development and using their purchasing power to strike advance deals. Since none of the vaccine candidates have received regulatory approval, countries hedged their bets by buying multiple vaccine candidates, in case some don’t materialize.
As a middle-income country, India has been able to move to the front of the queue using another strategy: leveraging its large manufacturing infrastructure.
“Countries with manufacturing capacity, such as India and Brazil, have managed to negotiate large market commitments in advance with leading vaccine candidates as part of manufacturing agreements,” said the Duke report, which was compiled after officials Government officials from around the world – including Indian officials – were consulted to explain their high procurement strategy.
India is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer and generates 60% of the world’s vaccine supply. It is also home to the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest producer of vaccines.
Of the three candidate vaccines the South Asian country has booked, SII manufactures two in India: the Oxford University / Astra-Zeneca vaccine and the Novavax candidate.
Of the 3.73 billion doses of Oxford and Novavax vaccines purchased by all countries, IBS would produce around 3 billion.
Dr. Reddy’s laboratory in Hyderabad also manufactures the Sputnik vaccine from Russia.
The two national vaccine candidates from India have also received approval to enter Phase 3 of their clinical trials.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Gujarat-based Zydus-Cadila “could also add around 400 million doses a year,” said virologist Shahid Jameel, director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, a Press Trust of India.
India’s vaccine distribution strategy is in line with the World Health Organization’s guidance on priority groups. Consequently, the first doses will go to front-line workers, health workers, sanitation, emergency services and security services.
The next to be vaccinated would be those with the highest risk of mortality, that is, people with comorbidities and those over 65 years of age.
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