More than 200 crore doses of coronavirus vaccines will likely be available in India between August to December this year, a top government advisor said on Thursday, raising hopes that the country may be able to overcome setbacks from its inoculation strategy.
Those doses would include 75 crore of AstraZeneca’s, vaccine, produced in India by the Serum Institute of India, as well as 55 crore doses of Covaxin, made by Bharat Biotech, government advisor V.K. Paul told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
“Two billion doses (216 crore) will be made in the country in five months for India and for people of India. The vaccine will be available for all as we move forward,” the NITI Aayog member said, adding by the first quarter of the next year, the number is likely to be 300 crore.
Despite being the global hub of vaccine manufacturing, India has been able to fully vaccinate less than 3 per cent of its population so far as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has faced accusations of dropping the ball on acquiring enough vaccines on time.
Dr Paul also told reporters that a consignment of Russia’s Sputnik vaccine has arrived in India, and “hopefully” it will be available in the market from next week.
“Sputnik vaccine has arrived in India. I’m happy to say that we’re hopeful that it’ll be available in the market next week. We’re hopeful that the sale of the limited supply that has come from there (Russia) will begin next week,” said Dr Paul while addressing media. He said the production of Sputnik is scheduled to begin in India by July. “Further supply will also follow. Its production will begin in July and it is estimated that 15.6 crore doses will be manufactured in that period,” Dr Paul said.
Notably, Sputnik V is the third vaccine India has given go-ahead to after Covishield, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and Covaxin, the indigenous vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech. Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Talking about the Central government’s move to increase the availability of Covid-19 vaccines, the NITI Aayog member said that overall, 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August and December—“for India and for Indians”.
“There should be no doubt that vaccine will be available for all as we move forward… Any vaccine that is approved by FDA, WHO can come to India. Import license will be granted within 1-2 days. No import license is pending,” he added.
He further informed that the Department of Biotechnology, along with other concerned departments and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been in touch with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson from the initial days of vaccine production.
“They were officially asked if they would like to send doses to or manufacture in India. We will find partners and assist. They had said that they are working in their own way and they would talk of vaccine availability in the third quarter in 2021. We are connected to them. I’m hopeful that they will step forward to increase availability in India. We invite them to manufacture here along with our companies. Johnson and Johnson did a good job. They accepted this offer under Quad,” Dr Paul said.