India is a world leader in vaccine manufacturing, and Indian pharmaceutical companies supply more than 50% of the global demand for vaccines needed for global immunization problems. But before Covid surged in India in March/April 2021 (second wave), Indian vaccine manufacturers like Serum Institute of India (SII), a Pune-based company, were supplying developing countries with corona vaccine doses via World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVAX program. However as the pandemic grew out of control, Indian authorities were forced to cap exports. During that period vaccine shortage continued throughout India, and in parts of the developing world that were depending on Indian vaccines.
SII is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume of doses it produces and sells globally. SII makes vaccines against Diptheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, etc, and ships out more than 1.5 billion doses annually at affordable prices. It is also producing Covisheild vaccines for the coronavirus for the country, which is what the AstraZeneca covid vaccine is called in India. Another major vaccine producer is Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which produced Covaxine for coronavirus. The company also owns patents and produces hepatitis B, rotavirus, and typhoid vaccines, and it is developing vaccines for viral diseases like chikungunya and Zika, Commulatively vaccine manufacturers including SII, Bharat Biotech, Panacea Biotech, Sanofi Shantha Biotechnics, Biological E, Hester Biosciences and Zydus Cadila have an installed capacity of 8.2 billion doses of different vaccines every year.
India has several large public sector organisations capable of producing vaccines, the licenses of Central Research Institute, BCG Vaccine, and Pasteur Institute of India- have not been renewed, and other Indian govt owned companies like Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation, Indian Immunologicals, and Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals have already approved for Covid vaccines. As per data available Haffkine can produce 228 million vaccine vials annually.
India has a strong pharma record
Indian drugmakers are often able to produce essential medicines at cheap prices. Earlier Indian company Cipla was able to offer AIDS medication to African countries for a fraction of the prices charged in developed countries like the USA.
SII developed a vaccine for meningitis, which was made cheaply and distributed across Africa. Over 152 million people received the vaccine within 10 years, helping to break the cycle of meningitis epidemics in 26 countries. India is already supplying a substantial part of the world’s vaccines. Given the pressure from EU leaders to set up vaccines manufacturing in their own jurisdiction, the market may get more crowded in the future, and this is where India’s ability to make vaccines at cheaper prices will become an advantage for India.
As per experts “ We need to emphasize on both quality as well as basic research because there is no reason why the vaccine innovations happening in rest of the world can not happen here”. Indian pharmaceutical companies often reverse engineer drugs developed by multinational pharma companies to sell the resulting formulation at a fraction of the original price. India’s unique selling point on vaccine production has always been high volume combined with low costs. India has been a leader when it comes to vaccines, and it should not lose sight of its potential, as Indian pharma companies can still quickly scale production and provide vital vaccines for the world.
India has time and again proved that it is WORLD’S VACCINE CAPITAL. It will keep its reputation is intact and the same has been proved during the Covid pandemic with a small glitch in beginning. Recently it created a record of the sort, when on 17th September 2021, when 250 million doses were given on a single day during 12 hours, in the whole country. The number of doses inoculated in a day is more than the population of many countries in the world.
It is a great achievement by India that during this Covid pandemic, it had supplied vaccines to many developing countries at cheap prices.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
21st September 2021v
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Good to know that India is manufacturing 60% of the vaccines ..
Tejinder Singh Sethi
To add, being largest manufacturer till date only 15.1% fully vaccinated for COVID. So still long way to go. The problem is with free centers as they receive very few vaccines. The government should speed up supply.