Despite government’s liberalised regulatory framework for foreign vaccines, India may not be able to get timely vaccine supply from Pfizer and Moderna.
Several other countries are much ahead of India in line, waiting for delivery of their confirmed orders, and the two American companies, which began supplying vaccines last year are committed to delivering millions of doses to countries through 2023, The Indian Express reported.
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The expert body under India’s drug regulator declined to recommend emergency use authorisation for Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine in February. Pfizer had subsequently withdrew its application then.
However, the government made a U-turn in April 13 as cases soared in India during second wave and it announced that it would not enforce the condition of phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in the country for vaccines that had been cleared by US, EU, UK, and Japanese regulators, and listed by the WHO.
After about than a month and a half, despite the liberalised regulation, Pfizer and Moderna are yet to enter any agreement with India.
Between February 3 and May 24, India has reported 1,49,017 Covid-related deaths. May has turned out to be the deadliest month since the outbreak of coronavirus. Since May 1, India has reported 95,390 deaths related to the infection, accounting for 31.41 percent of the total deaths. The shortage of vaccines has slowed or stopped vaccinations across the country — and the failure to vaccinate threatens to take away gains from the lockdowns imposed by almost all states.
The Union Health Ministry appeared to accept this reality. “Whether it is Pfizer or Moderna, we have been coordinating at the central level… Both Pfizer and Moderna, most of the time, their order books are already full. It is depending on their surplus on how much they can provide to India. They will come back to Government of India and we will ensure that their doses can be supplied at state level,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry, said.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in the US on Monday to meet with top American officials and vaccine manufacturers to discuss procurement for India.
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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced yesterday that Pfizer and Moderna had communicated that they would not sell directly to states. Punjab said that after Moderna, Pfizer too had declined its request for doses.
Pfizer has already received orders worth hundred million doses while EU accounting for 2.4 billion doses in 2020. Moderna too has received of million doses to both US and European Union.
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