NEW DELHI (AP) – India said on Tuesday it would approve the use of all coronavirus vaccines that the World Health Organization or regulators in the United States, Europe, Britain and Japan have given a emergency gesture.
The Indian Ministry of Health said the decision was aimed at speeding up the use of shots made in other countries and expanding the “vaccine basket” available for domestic use. The country of nearly 1.4 billion people is experiencing a parallel rise in infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the hardest-hit cities.
The only way out of the crisis, according to experts, is to vaccinate more people.
But this has global implications, as India is a major producer of vaccines and India’s domestic needs have delayed the delivery of shots to the UN-backed COVAX initiative, which aims to distribute vaccines. equitably.
Earlier India had given the lead to the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and another from the Indian company Bharat Biotech.
Now, vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from regulators in the U.S., Europe, Britain, Japan, or the World Health Organization can be used in India. The Ministry of Health also said on Tuesday that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine had been lit in green for emergency use.
The Ministry of Health said security will be monitored in the first 100 people who receive these shots, before their use is expanded to include others.
Dr Shahid Jameel, who studies viruses at Ashoka University in India, said that while this measure is unlikely to help the country cope with the increase it is currently experiencing, it would help the availability of vaccines in the future, leaving accordingly the vaccines that could be exported.
He said this would pave the way for India to use vaccines made by companies with a manufacturing partner in India. For example, vaccine manufacturer Biological E Ltd has contracted to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
Jameel added that this would potentially open up the market to vaccines that require ultra-cold storage facilities to be sold in cities where such facilities are available. Currently, vaccine prices in India have a cap of 250 rupees or $ 3.30. This will also free the government from subsidizing vaccines for the poor, while those who can afford to buy more expensive vaccines can do so.
Russia has agreements with five Indian pharmaceutical companies to manufacture more than 850 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines in India for the world. It has also signed an agreement with Dr Reddy Laboratories to conduct late trials and distribute up to 250 million doses in India.
But with four of Russia’s five agreements signed in March and April, doses are likely to be supplied later in the year. In addition, Russia’s first manufacturing deal with India was with Hetero Biopharma for 100 million doses, but it’s unclear if it has started making doses. Hetero Biopharma did not answer questions from The Associated Press.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.