An AstraZeneca vaccine production line.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The world’s leading manufacturer of volume vaccines, the Serum Institute of India, has said it first meets domestic demand for Covid-19 shots before distributing them overseas.
The decision implies that foreign governments could face delays in the company as it puts India’s needs ahead of the others.
“Dear countries and governments, as you await the supply of #COVISHIELD, I humbly ask you to please be patient,” tweeted CEO Adar Poonawalla.
He said the Serum Institute of India (SII) “has been aimed at prioritizing the huge needs of India and along with this balance, the needs of the rest of the world. We are doing our best.”
Poonawalla did not delve into who gave the directive.
SII declined to comment further on Poonawalla’s tweet when he was contacted by CNBC.
Covishield
Serum Institute is manufacturing the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, known locally as Covishield.
It is one of two vaccines to have received emergency approval for use in India’s mass inoculation campaign, which aims to vaccinate some 300 million people in the first phase, mostly workers. front-line and people over 50 or in high-risk groups.
The other vaccine that received emergency approval was developed locally by India’s Bharat Biotech. It was created in collaboration with the state-administered Indian Medical Research Council, and emergency use authorization was granted as clinical trials continue.
Since the vaccination campaign began in January, India has inoculated more than 10.8 million people as of February 20, according to the government. The number of daily vaccines is expected to increase in the coming months.
An army health worker is preparing a dose of Covidield coronavirus vaccine, AstraZeneca / Oxford, manufactured by the India Serum Institute, at an army hospital in Colombo on January 29, 2021.
signe S. Kodikara | AFP | Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) also granted Covishield the list of emergency uses this month, allowing it to be supplied to low- and middle-income countries around the world.
AstraZeneca said it expects more than 300 million doses to be made available in 145 countries during the first half of 2021 through Covax, a global vaccination initiative led by WHO and others.
Covishield is less expensive compared to some of the other vaccines used, such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Nor should it be stored at extremely low temperatures, making it suitable for use in many developing countries that do not have the necessary storage infrastructure.