NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has temporarily suspended all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, to meet domestic demand with rising infections, two Reuters sources said .
The move will also affect supplies for the global GAVA / WHO-supported COVAX vaccine sharing facility, whereby 64 low-income countries must receive doses of the SII, the program’s purchasing and distribution partner, UNICEF told Reuters. .
“We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income economies participating in COVAX facilities are likely to face delays after a setback in obtaining export licenses for new doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) , should be dispatched in March and April, ”said UNICEF by email.
“COVAX is in negotiations with the Government of India with the aim of guaranteeing deliveries as soon as possible.”
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SII did not respond to requests for comment.
COVAX has so far received 17.7 million doses of AstraZeneca from the SII, out of the 60.5 million doses India has sent in total, and many countries are counting on the program to immunize their citizens.
There has been no export of vaccines from India since Thursday, shows the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the country expands its own immunization effort.
“Everything else was in the background, at least for now,” said one of the sources. Both sources had direct knowledge of the subject, but did not want to be cited because the discussions are not public.
“No exports, nothing until the situation in India stabilizes. The government will not be so at risk when so many need to be vaccinated in India ”.
SOME DELAYS ALREADY
The SII has already delayed shipments of the AstraZeneca drug to Brazil, Great Britain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. British authorities are in contact with New Delhi to obtain their second batch of 5 million doses ordered from the SII.
COVAX has an agreement to buy 1.1 billion doses of the AstraZeneca and Novavax injections that the SII is making in bulk, mainly for low- and middle-income countries.
UNICEF in Vietnam said in a statement on Wednesday that problems with vaccine production led to delays in delivery to all countries that were supposed to receive vaccines through COVAX.
UNICEF told Reuters that COVAX informed participating countries that they would receive lower than expected volumes in March from the AstraZeneca-Oxford injection produced in South Korea.
“In line with the challenges of the current global supply environment, this is due to the challenges that the company faces in order to rapidly increase supply and optimize production processes for these early deliveries,” he said.
AstraZeneca told COVAX that it would make up for the backlog in April and May, UNICEF said.
The office of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week decided to extend his vaccination campaign to include everyone over 45 as of April 1, and many states fighting the rise in infections have demanded that all adults be covered.
With 11.7 million cases, India reported the highest number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil.
Currently, only the elderly and those over 45 with other health conditions are eligible for vaccination in India. Health and frontline workers were first in line when India started its campaign in mid-January.
India has administered more than 52 million doses, 47 million of which are the SII version of the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine. The rest is the COVAXIN vaccine developed in India by Bharat Biotech.
The government has so far asked the SII to supply about 141 million doses. The company also accounted for almost all vaccine exports from India.
The SII plans to increase monthly production to 100 million doses in April / May, up to 70 million now, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Reporting by Krishna N. Das; additional reporting by Allasdair Pal, Euan Rocha and Neha Arora; edition of Barbara Lewis and Stephen Coates