India leverages manufacturing capacity; after US, it is only country to pre-order 600 mn vaccines
Even as drug manufacturers are racing to develop a vaccine to combat Covid-19, India has already used its manufacturing capability to pre-order 600 million doses of the coronavirus shots and is negotiating for another billion doses.
This will be enough to vaccinate at least half the population, according to an analysis of purchasing agreements for Covid-19 vaccines by the US-based Duke Global Health Innovation Center.
After the US, India is the only country in the world which has pre-ordered such a large number of doses under negotiation.
The point about India was made by Andrea D Taylor, assistant director of programmes at the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.
“In terms of numbers of confirmed doses, the USA has pre-ordered the largest number (810 million confirmed, another 1.6 billion doses under negotiation), followed by India (600 million doses confirmed, with another 1 billion doses under negotiation), and the EU (400 million doses confirmed, another 1.565 billion doses under negotiation),” said Andrea D Taylor.
She went on to add that in terms of per cent of population covered by confirmed purchases, Canada has pre-purchased enough vaccine to cover 527 per cent population, followed by the UK at 277 per cent population. “Of course, it is important to remember that most likely only some of the vaccine purchases will come through, depending on regulatory approval,” Taylor said.
The three potential vaccines undertrials in India are Bharat Biotech and ICMR’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Oxford-AstraZeneca in partnership with Serum Institute. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Sunday said that it is planning to launch its vaccine for Covid-19 in the second quarter next year if it gets the requisite approvals from the Indian regulatory authorities.
The Centre has already asked the States and UTs to form three-tier committees which would oversee the rollout of the vaccine and address any hiccups, including rumors. “Once the distribution of the vaccine starts, the district task force would work on developing robust communication planning at all levels to address rumor-mongering as well as vaccine eagerness”, said an official from the Union Health Ministry.
The three-tier committees would comprise the State steering committee, State task force, and district task force in each State and UT.
Tuesday, 03 November 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
