New Delhi: Health partnership with India goes “beyond” vaccines and the manufacturing of the Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine in India “illustrates” that partnership, said British High Commissioner to India Philip Barton.
According to Barton, who took over officially on 8 July, India is a “key partner” for the UK in the research and development of Covid-19 vaccines and medicines.
“The latest reports of the results of the Oxford University vaccine candidate are encouraging and, of course, as you all know, it will be manufactured here in India by the Serum Institute. I think that really illustrates our partnership in the health sector — for the benefit of both our countries, but also more broadly for the world in general as we try to cope with and get beyond the pandemic,” Barton said during a virtual media briefing Thursday.
The envoy, however said, the UK is still unsure if the Oxford vaccine is “going to work or not”, adding that even after the vaccine is fully developed, its efficacy may differ from one kind of age to the others.
India has tremendous vaccine capability, he said, lauding the efforts of Serum Institute and AstraZeneca, which will be producing the Covid vaccine in India.
Barton also said that the health partnership between India and the UK goes “beyond” vaccines.
“There’s a wider research element. The UK is now India’s second biggest research partner with joint research expected to be worth £400 million by next year,” he said.
“We’re all in this together. It is partnership and working together that is going to get us through this. And India is really important to the UK in that regard. It was crucial in giving permissions for the export of paracetamol when supplies were running very low in the UK, crucial in allowing supplies of PPE.”
Barton said he was kept at a Covid-19 quarantine centre in Delhi for 14 days after arriving in the capital.
“It was one of Delhi’s nicer quarantine centres, which I have seen in the world,” he said.
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About the Oxford vaccine
Barton said Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the Global Vaccine Summit in June that the UK had hosted and made a financial commitment along with many other countries to the Vaccine Alliance.
The University of Oxford is working with the UK-based global bio-pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for further development, large-scale manufacture and potential distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, with plans for clinical development and production of the Oxford vaccine progressing globally.
The project has been further spurred by £84 million of government funding to help accelerate the vaccine’s development, according to the High Commission.
UK scientists at Oxford University and Imperial College London are leading the efforts to develop a working vaccine. Advanced clinical trials are currently underway at both the institutes, supported by government funding.
The results of the Phase I and II trial of Oxford’s vaccine candidate indicated no early safety concerns and that it induces strong immune responses, the British High Commission said.
According to the Commission, the UK has already committed £764 million towards researching vaccines, tests and treatments, and reinforcing global health systems.
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