Which country will have Covid's first vaccine?

Posted on 10th Aug 2020 by rohit kumar

Worldwide, there is a competition to prepare the coronavirus vaccine and the most talked about is who will make the vaccine first, how will the vaccine be made and what will it cost. This discussion is also important in the sense that many rich countries have invested and even made advance payments to buy and prepare vaccines, whereas in contrast no such step has been taken by the Government of India. Meanwhile, the news is that Russia may bring its vaccine in a day or two, which is currently in the third phase of testing. Reports have claimed that Russia plans to start mass production of the Covid-19 vaccine from October.

 

Do India's vaccine makers see the possibility of tying up with the Russian University for vaccines? One vaccine manufacturer said, 'Russia vaccine will be the first Covid-19 vaccine to be registered. They have produced vaccines that follow their research protocol and are not associated with WHO or any other agencies. But if anyone looks at this project, it seems that it will be successful. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that the vaccine should be made available to health workers first. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had also recently said that there was already a consensus that health workers treating infected people should get the vaccine first. With this, the problem of the shortage of healthcare professionals will also be avoided. However, this statement was seen by experts as a suggestion and not an endorsement to do so. Now the question is whether the government will provide free vaccines to health workers or whether any of its units will buy coronavirus vaccine for the country, it is not clear yet. However, in response to these questions, ICMR refused to comment. Sources in the government indicated that ICMR and Health Ministry are still discussing these issues. A senior official said, "There is not much clarity on which candidate can be successful, and hence the government has not even promised to fund any local vaccine companies to take the vaccine." Although some grants have been made available by the Department of Biotechnology 'Indian companies have joined the Covax-Covid-19 vaccine Global Access and have partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi to help low- and medium-income countries Vaccines can be supplied. Many wealthy countries such as the US, Japan, Britain have already paid pharmaceutical companies upfront so that they can get billions of vaccine doses. World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, 'Countries can do bilateral deals and also be part of Kovacs. But the risk of bilateral deals is that some companies may not be able to make vaccines while in Kovacs you reduce that risk by investing in a large number of vaccine candidates. The availability of vaccines through Kovacs will depend on the available capital for this initiative so that vaccines can be procured. According to Gavi's estimate, the initial supply would require a minimum of $ 2 billion and so far it has raised $ 600 million. However, India does not count it in high and high middle-income countries so it does not need to make any advance payment to Gavi as one of its eligible members.

 

Swaminathan said, 'The model we want to promote is to share equally what we have available.' WHO is also expecting countries that have given more vaccine orders to share additional supplies with other countries. Indian vaccine manufacturers are eagerly waiting for the government to give some indication for the purchase of vaccines. A leading vaccine manufacturer said, 'We know that the vaccine that will be prepared at the initial stage will be procured by the government for uniform distribution. However, the government has not yet promised to share in the risk associated with vaccine preparation, investing in a vaccine manufacturing project, so that the commitment to purchase the vaccine can be expressed. ' Panacea Biotech and Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologists have said that there has been no discussion on the purchase of vaccines from the government so far. Panacea Biotech managing director Rajesh Jain said, "The government is probably waiting for more clarity in vaccine production only when it will take an investment or purchase decision".

 

Another vaccine-making company indicated that the government had assured to help promote the production of a vaccine if successful in three-phase trials. The Department of Medicine has also recently held a review meeting with the glass vial manufacturers to review the preparation related to their production capacity. The Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with the Gavi and Gates Foundation to supply 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines, and Novavax vaccines, and is priced at $ 3 or Rs 250 per dose. has gone. For this, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through its Strategic Investment Fund, will fund $ 150 million to Gavi to help SII in vaccine manufacturing.

 

After meeting a dose of 10 crores for Gavi, SII will be free to fix the price of vaccines in the Indian market. SII Chief Executive (CEO) Adar Poonawala had earlier indicated that the vaccine would be priced below Rs 1,000 per dose.

 

According to experts, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, BCG vaccines were made available free of cost in India. Experts said that people had to buy vaccines themselves for other diseases like hepatitis and smallpox. Senior Virologist Jacob John says, 'The government will say that we have made the vaccine available in the country, you buy it. The same has happened during the influenza vaccine. If he had been serious about the use of the vaccine, he would have spent some money on it. '

 

Other than funding issues, vaccine manufacturers are referring to issues such as getting early approval and easy approval by the government. Krishna Biota, managing director of Bharat Biotech, said at a recent event, "It is necessary for the government to decentralize the approval process related to vaccine formulation as well as create regional offices of regulatory bodies." India is betting big on its vaccine manufacturing capabilities, which is the highest in the world so that it can be in a better bargaining position for the vaccine. At the ICMR symposium, Dr. Antony Fauchi, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and another prominent infectious disease expert, said that India's private sector played an important role in the global fight against Covid-19 Will be. He had said, "Further we and other institutes (US National Institutes of Health) will continue to work with Indian counterparts and collaborators to assure that Indian scientists, with the impressive research and development potential of Covid-19 Connected with global efforts in the manufacture of vaccines. However, experts say that the decision to purchase the vaccine can also be left to the state governments if the management of the epidemic is seen.