India, the country with 1.36 billion people or 17 percent of the global population, has managed the Coronavirus very well. So far, the cases per million and deaths per million population is the lowest among big countries, and this has put India as the new global leader on the world map. India’s Serum Institute is now betting big on a leading contender for a COVID-19 vaccine, meanwhile, China is also desperate to enter the race to manufacture millions of doses by the end of the year.
India is going to be at the forefront of manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine and later exporting them to countries around the world. Among the more than 50 vaccines in the early stages of development, a vaccine developed by Oxford University scientists is ahead of the curve. This vaccine had been developed a few years ago to vaccinate Ebola patients, and has been found successful in animals and has been tested in humans the results of which will be visible by June.
The vaccine developed by Oxford University had not proved effective against Ebola but it has been found that with a little tweaking it could be used against Covid-19. Among the vaccine manufacturers, Oxford University has chosen for mass manufacturing this vaccine, is the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
Serum is a world leader in vaccine manufacturing and it has already started the process to produce 60 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research in the anticipation that the Oxford University would be successful in making an effective Covid-19 vaccine.
“They are a bunch of very qualified, great scientists (at Oxford)… That’s why we said we will go with this and that’s why we are confident,” said Serum Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla. “Being a private limited company, not accountable to public investors or bankers, I can take a little risk and sideline some of the other commercial products and projects that I had planned in my existing facility,” he added.
Once the vaccine is developed and India starts mass production, it will be first used for Indians and would be exported to countries around the world, as the country did in the case of HCQ. “A majority of the vaccine, at least initially, would have to go to our countrymen before it goes abroad,” Poonawalla said. Which country gets the vaccine, the priority in which countries get the vaccine, and how much vaccine is given to any country would be decided by the Indian government. Modi government is already working closely with Serum institute and PMO is closely monitoring the developments.
One dose is expected to cost around 1,000 rupees and the Modi government has already said that it would hedge some risk for the company. “(The government) are very happy to share some risk and fund something with us, but we haven’t really penciled anything down yet,” said Poonawala.
India is a world leader in manufacturing generic drugs and vaccines. Serum Institute alone manufactures 1.5 billion doses every year, from its manufacturing facilities in Pune, India, Netherlands, and Czech Republic. The company supplies 20 types of vaccines in 165 countries around the world, and that too, at a very cheap rate.
The company is not only a manufacturing vaccine developed by Oxford University but the other companies like Codagenix, an American biotech company, and an Austrian company which is in the early stage of vaccine development have also signed up with Serum for mass manufacturing. Therefore, no matter which country in the western world or India first successfully develops the vaccine, Serum would be at the forefront in mass manufacturing, and this would put India high in the global hierarchy.
The only country which could challenge India in vaccine game in China. The Communist country has already started the preparation to manufacture vaccines at war footing. Sinovac Biotech, a two-decade-old firm has been approved by the Chinese government to mass manufacture a vaccine that is being developed by Chinese medical authorities.
But given the low credibility of China after the unrelenting exports of criminally faulty medical equipments, no country is going to purchase vaccines from Chinese firms, even if it succeeds is developing it successfully. On the other hand, India has not only managed the situation at home very well but also helped over 55 countries around the world with millions of tablets of anti-malarial drug HCQ in the fight against the virus. Therefore, this puts India at a huge advantage, and India is going to be the savior of the world through mass manufacturing of vaccines developed by Oxford Institute.