Corona Vaccine: Is India Ready With Rs 80K Cr?

As the vaccine candidate, Covishield, being developed by Oxford University and UK pharma giant Astra Zeneca enters the Phase II and Phase III clinical trials in India, in collaboration with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of SII, raised a question regarding India’s plan to produce and distribute shots to the citizens against Coronavirus.

“Quick question: will the Government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year? Because that is what the Ministry of Health needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle,” Poonawalla tweeted.

“I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution,” he said.

SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker by the number of doses produced, is working on several vaccine candidates against Covid-19, apart from developing one of its own.

Storage, delivery barriers

In July, during an interview, Poonawalla said that Covishield might cost around Rs 1,000, if available in India. Further, he said that the country would get around 30 million doses per month and that it could take up to two years for the entire country to be inoculated.

But, there are concerns over storage and delivery barriers and Poonawalla raised questions about the same as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech last month, said that when a viable vaccine was ready, the government had a plan to ensure that it reached every Indian.

Further, he said three vaccines were in different stages of testing. “When scientists give the
green signal, we will ready a plan for production. How the vaccine will reach every Indian in the least amount of time – we have a roadmap ready for that,” Modi said.

Meanwhile, US biotech firm Codagenix Inc said that SII has started manufacturing its potential Covid-19 vaccine and that it would being the early-stage human trial of the vaccine by the end of 2020 in the UK. SII will develop Codagenix’s CDX-005, which would be administered intranasally rather than via injection.

India will help world fight Covid

Meanwhile, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, which is being held virtually for the first time, on its 75th anniversary, Modi also assured the UN that India would help the world with a vaccine against the Coronavirus.

“As the largest vaccine producing country in the world, I want to give one more assurance to the global community today,” he said. “India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis.”

He also said that India’s pharma industry has sent medicines to more than 150 countries during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, three India-made Covid-19 vaccines are set to enter human trials. Two more vaccine candidates are from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, Biological E and Bharat Biotech, the latter’s vaccine is already in clinical trials. The fifth Indian vaccine candidate to clear preclinical phases is by Zydus Cadila.

According to information, more than 150 potential vaccines are being developed and tested globally, with 38 in human trials.