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New production lines have been set up, the Cadila vaccine is approved and the Russian Sputnik V starts production in India.
Growing production of COVID-19 vaccines in India and inoculation of at least one dose to more than half of its adult population gives hope that the country will once again become an exporter within months, increasing from the start of the year. ‘next year.
After donating or selling 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries, India banned exports in mid-April to focus on national vaccination as infections soared, upsetting vaccination plans in many countries of the world. ‘Africa and South Asia.
India’s daily vaccinations surpassed 10 million doses on Friday, as national vaccine production more than doubled since April and is expected to rise again in the coming weeks.
New production lines have been set up, a vaccine developed by Cadila Healthcare has recently been approved, and commercial production of the Russian Sputnik V begins in India.
A man receives a dose of Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India at a hospital in Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, now produces around 150 million doses per month of its version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, more than double its April production of around 65 million, according to a source with knowledge of the subject. noted.
“No fixed schedule for exports, but the company hopes to restart in a few months,” said the source, who declined to be named without permission to speak on the matter.
The SII, which previously said exports could resume by the end of the year, did not respond to a request for comment.
The global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX hopes India will restart overseas sales as soon as possible.
“With a successful national vaccination and the arrival of more products, we hope that the Indian supply of COVAX will resume as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the co-head of the GAVI platform told the news agency. Reuters press in an email.
India, a major international producer of many other vaccines, could play a “similar transformative role in the global response to COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.
India’s health ministry and the foreign ministry, which coordinates vaccine exports, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bharat Biotech, the maker of the first COVID-19 vaccine developed in India, on Sunday inaugurated a new plant with a production capacity of 10 million doses per month.
The company said it is “walking towards” a goal of a total annual capacity of around 1 billion doses of the drug, Covaxin.
Infections, meanwhile, are on the rise again in India after an explosive surge in April and May. But the country has administered more than 633 million doses of the vaccine, with 52 percent of its 944 million adults taking at least one dose and more than 15 percent taking two doses.
A government source told Reuters in June that the US experience has shown that vaccination tends to slow down after a fairly large majority of people have been vaccinated. This could give SII a chance to export the excess production, the source said.
JP Nadda, party leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said this month that India could produce up to 1.1 billion doses of the vaccine between September and December, enough to fully immunize all adults in the country this month. year.
India has so far granted emergency clearance for six injections of COVID-19, four of which are produced locally.
Another national vaccine is expected to be approved soon while many more are in mid-term trials.
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