The Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
India says it may increase its production of Covid-19 vaccines to 500 million a month for export, as it receives interest from the UK, Belgium and countries across the Middle East and Africa seeking access to cheaper vaccines.
The South Asian country has the capacity to increase the production of The AstraZeneca Plc vaccine being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India Ltd, as well as a locally developed injection, in the expectation that demand will rise by the end of this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified, as negotiations are still underway. South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are among African nations in negotiations for supplies, they said.
New Delhi started on Wednesday to send vaccines to six neighboring countries – Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Seychelles – and is awaiting regulatory authorizations from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius to send the vaccines, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. from India said in a declaration Tuesday. The ministry spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read: Massive Vaccine Drive begins in India, despite safety concerns
Vaccines sent to your entire neighborhood are all assisted and will cover health professionals, frontline workers and the most vulnerable in southern Asian nations, the report said. Letters of intent for more countries are expected on Wednesday.
More countries in Europe showed interest in purchasing vaccines produced in India, given the average cost of US $ 35 Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna photos, according to officials. Serum, the world’s largest producer of vaccines by volume, can ship the Astra vaccine for between $ 5-10 per dose.
The Pune-based company can currently administer 65 million Covid injections per month, but has the capacity to increase to 100 million doses, said a Serum official, asking not to be identified because the information was private. She expects the government to place orders for deliveries in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Adverse effects
But even nations that have ordered the 20 million doses to be sent to the immediate vicinity of India and the Middle East, are waiting by the end of this week for data on the adverse effects of Serum’s Covishield vaccines that India started administering before to place final orders, according to officials.
India also granted early use license to local company Covaxin, from Bharat Biotech International Ltd, fired, although it has not yet passed the finals tests. So far, all shipments outside India have been candidates for the serum vaccine, officials said, adding that the final demand for both vaccines will depend on their safety data.
India, the second country most hit by viruses in the world, with more than 10.5 million infections and 152,718 reported deaths, kicked off the largest vaccination campaign in the world on Saturday. Of the 674,835 people vaccinated across the country as of Wednesday, nine people have needed hospitalization for adverse effects, according to government data.
India is also preparing to fulfill a shipment for Brazil, which was delayed last week, people said. The South American nation is among a handful of countries that have received personal guarantees from Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the supply of vaccines, they said.
– With the help of Ragini Saxena
(Updates with virus data in the 10th paragraph.)