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 After a devastating second wave of infections that killed tens of
thousands in April-May, the focus has shifted to urgently
inoculating India's vast adult population to curb infections later
this year.
The government will buy 300 million doses from local firm
Biological-E and has put down an advance of $205.6 million, the
health ministry said, even though the vaccine is still undergoing
phase-3 clinical trials, before approvals can be given.
"The arrangement with M/s Biological-E is part of the wider
endeavour of Government of India to encourage indigenous vaccine
manufacturers by providing them support in Research & Development
(R&D) and also financial support," the ministry said in a statement.
India has been inoculating its people with the AstraZeneca vaccine
produced locally at the Serum Institute of India (SII), Covaxin made
by local firm Bharat Biotech and has begun rolling out Russia's
Sputnik V.
But supplies are running tight after the government opened
vaccinations to all adults last month. Some vaccination centres have
had to close down, prompting criticism from the Supreme Court about
a lack of proper planning.
While the federal government gave free vaccines to the elderly and
frontline workers, it left it to state governments and private
hospitals to administer doses to people in the 18 to 45 age group at
a pre-determined price.
"The policy of the central government for conducting free
vaccination themselves for groups under the first 2 phases, and
replacing it with paid vaccination...is, prima facie, arbitrary and
irrational," the Supreme Court said.
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 Younger people were just as
vulnerable, as the second wave of infections had
shown, the court said. It asked the government
to review its vaccination policy, produce a
roadmap and said the court could not be a silent
spectator when the constitutional rights of the
citizens were at risk. So far,
about 4.7% of the country's 950 million adult population have been
given both doses. The government said this week supplies are
improving and it could have as many as 10 million doses each day in
July and August, up from just under three million now.
The Serum Institute of India has sought regulatory approval to make
Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, a senior government official
said, on top of the AstraZeneca and Novavax Inc shots it is already
producing.
The federal drugs regulator did not immediately respond to a Reuters
e-mail seeking comment.
India announced on Thursday 134,154 new COVID-19 infections over the
past 24 hours, still high but down more than 65% from a peak of
414,188 reported on May 7. The official recorded case load since the
start of the pandemic now stands at 28.4 million.
($1 = 72.9500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Neha Arora in New Delhi, Nallur Sethuraman in
Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat and Tanvi Mehta;
Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Kim Coghill)
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