India is unable to export all the Covid vaccines it produces: logistical difficulties in the countries that need them most are delaying the distribution of drugs, according to the Serum Institute of India, the world‘s largest producer of immunizers.
The group makes the AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sputnik vaccines. A few days ago it announced its intention to temporarily halve the production of AstraZeneca (250 million doses per month, distributed in India under the name of Covishield), until more substantial orders arrive, perhaps to carry out the recalls.
The Covax program
The Serum Institute was also the go-to producer of the Covax platform, backed by the United Nations for the fair distribution of vaccines in the poorest areas of the world. However, in March 2021, the giant had to suspend scheduled deliveries to deal with the emergency that broke out in India. Shipments restarted at the end of November. Since then, Covax, which has an option to purchase up to 550 million Covishield doses, has become less dependent on the Serum Institute and has only ordered 40 million doses.
Accelerate administration
“The world supply of vaccines is sufficient, what takes time is to administer them to people,” Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla said yesterday, speaking at a virtual conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Along the same lines, Vinod Kumar Paul, who leads the Indian task forces on Covid and vaccines. “India is able to offer the drugs, but the debate should be about how to speed up deliveries and increase absorption capacity in many countries, particularly Africa,” he said.
Only 8% of the African population (1.3 billion) is fully immunized. The continent’s health authorities denounced at the end of November that many countries are struggling with logistical obstacles (setting up and supplying vaccination centers, organizing immunization campaigns, informing the population) that block administration.