New Delhi: Months after its successful campaign to supply hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) around the world, India is now in a race with China in making a locally-produced Covid vaccine accessible in the entire South Asian region.
New Delhi is looking at Covid vaccine diplomacy with its neighbours as Beijing moves at a fair clip to offer its own Sinovac Biotech-made vaccine to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.
While Beijing is rushing to offer its vaccine to some of India’s immediate neighbours, New Delhi is taking “measured steps” to have a locally-made vaccine distributed to friendly countries, a top official told ThePrint.
Bharat Biotech is currently in advanced stages of trials for its vaccine candidate while firms like Serum Institute of India, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Hetero Labs have entered into collaborations with global giants for producing vaccines in India. These include the US’ Novavax, Britain’s AstraZeneca and University of Oxford, and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute.
Pharma giants Pfizer and Moderna are also in initial talks to produce their vaccine candidates locally, sources said.
According to the official, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has already instructed India’s ambassadors and high commissioners in the neighbourhood as well as other countries to assess the need of Covid vaccine in their respective areas and make it available when a vaccine is proven effective within the country.
“Like in the case of hydroxychloroquine, we have promised to offer Covid vaccine to our friendly neighbours. But these things do not have a definitive approach as nobody knows the efficacy of any of the vaccines that are now being developed. This is a developing matter,” the official said.
In the early stages of the pandemic, countries like the US and Brazil, among others, had bought HCQ from India. The anti-malaria drug was seen as a frontrunner for Covid prevention and treatment at the time.
“India, through all its missions abroad, has reached out to the foreign offices of all countries committing that it will offer the vaccine to them, if needed. After all, India is regarded as the pharmacy to the world,” the official added.
“Ultimately, the choice is with these countries to take the vaccines they find more useful. India will be offering the vaccines to all. We are considering the entire South Asian region as one unit,” said the official, adding that some nations will also receive the vaccine doses as grants from India.
A visit to Hyderabad is being organised for foreign heads of missions in India on 9 December. More than 60 heads of missions will be taken to leading biotech companies in Hyderabad, Bharat Biotech and Biological E, sources said.
“This is the first such visit and it will be followed by visits to facilities in other cities. We have been contributing significantly to global efforts against Covid-19 pandemic. There is a lot of interest in India’s vaccine development efforts. India is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. As PM said, India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis,” said an official, who didn’t want to be named.
Also read: Bankers want to be ‘frontline workers’ who get Covid vaccine first, write to Sitharaman
Covid diplomacy
During his recent trips in the neighbourhood, Foreign Secretary Harsh V. Shringla committed Covid vaccines to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Covid cooperation initiative.
“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has made it clear that we will ensure that the vaccine is not just for the people of India but for all humanity. We will make this vaccine accessible and affordable and it goes without saying that the first priority will be for our closest neighbours, our friends, like Nepal,” the foreign secretary said in Kathmandu last month.
Similarly, when he visited Myanmar in October and Bangladesh earlier in August, Shringla said India will distribute Covid vaccines to these countries to fight the pandemic.
On 6 November, the foreign secretary convened a meeting to brief heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations, where he spoke about issues related to Covid vaccine delivery system and international cooperation.
During the SCO Council of Heads of Government Meeting last month, Vikas Swarup, Secretary (West), MEA, said, “We want our vaccines to be used for the global good… We will help the entire humanity with our vaccines.”
While India’s SII has partnered University of Oxford and AstraZeneca for the manufacture and distribution of their Covid vaccine, Hetero Labs has joined hands with Russian Direct Investment Fund to produce Sputnik V vaccine in India. Sputnik V is undergoing human clinical trials in India presently.
India has already emerged as the biggest buyer of Covid vaccine in the world with 1.6 billion doses. It has purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, 1 billion from the US’ Novavax and 100 million doses of the Sputnik V.
Also read: Govt begins internal review of Pfizer and Serum Covid vaccines, focus on safety & quality
China aims to produce Sinovac in Nepal, Indonesia
On Monday, Chinese pharma major Sinovac obtained $500 million extra funding to produce its Covid vaccine. About 1.2 million doses of its vaccine were recently given to Indonesia while another tranche will be produced there locally.
Meanwhile, Nepal has become a hub for clinical trials of vaccines, including Sinovac’s. The firm also has plans to conduct its last-phase trials among 500 Chinese and Nepali workers at Hongshi Shivam Cement, a joint-venture cement factory in Nepal. It plans to carry out clinical trials in Turkey and Bangladesh as well.
China has also held meetings with the governments of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal on fighting Covid while stressing the need to advance President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
India will distribute after adequate domestic stock
India is one of the biggest vaccine manufacturers in the world and that is what the Modi government is banking on when it is committing to distribute Covid vaccines to other countries, government sources said.
New Delhi will be distributing only those vaccines to other nations that will be produced in the country, and will prove to be the most effective, they said.
The vaccines will be made accessible only after adequate availability of domestic stocks amid plans to ramp up production, they added. India has no plans to distribute imported vaccines to neighbouring countries.
On Monday, AstraZeneca and Pfizer asked India for emergency-use authorisations for their Covid vaccines in an effort to bypass the tedious trial and application process and speed up production.
Also read: 61% Indians know one or more people in their social circles who died of Covid, survey says