Global
vaccine alliance GAVI hopes India will resume exports this quarter
Send a link to a friend
[July 07, 2021]
By Krishna N. Das and Neha Arora
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The GAVI vaccine
alliance hopes the Serum Institute of India (SII) will resume exports of
the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from this quarter, it told Reuters,
earlier than the firm's forecast of the end of this year.
|
GAVI co-leads the COVAX facility for equitable distribution of
COVID-19 shots around the world. COVAX suffered a big jolt in April
when big vaccine producer India stopped all overseas shipments to
meet local demand as infections rose dramatically.
India's coronavirus crisis has now eased and output of the
AstraZeneca drug at SII, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has also
jumped, but so has domestic demand.
"We remain hopeful that SII deliveries will resume in the third
quarter, however, this cannot be confirmed at this stage," a GAVI
spokesperson said in an e-mail late on Tuesday.
"In the meantime, COVAX has been aggressively following through on
its strategy of diversifying its portfolio, securing over a billion
additional doses in the past month alone either through direct
procurements or through dose sharing."
An Indian government source said a decision on exports might be made
next month when the country's COVID-19 vaccine output is expected to
rise further.
[to top of second column] |
SII did not immediately respond
to a request for comment. A source close to SII
said the company was focused on supplying to
India for now. It said
https://twitter.com/SerumInstIndia/status/
1394652001573629958/photo/1 in May that it hoped
to "start delivering to COVAX and other
countries by the end of this year".
India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to queries from
Reuters.
Bangladesh's health minister told reporters on Tuesday that SII
could restart supplies to it from August. The country is suffering
from a resurgence in infections and has received only 7 million
doses out of 30 million it has ordered from the company.
India has so far administered https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in 358.1
million vaccine doses - the most in the world after China - giving
at least one dose to 31% of its estimated adult population of 944
million.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kim
Coghill)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |