SII chief urges Biden to lift US export embargo

Adar Poonawalla has said that the embargo on critical raw materials is hurting the SII’s ability to produce doses of the Novavax vaccine

NEW DELHI: Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of Serum Institute of India, which is world’s largest maker of vaccines and is producing the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine under the brand name Covishield, asked US President Joe Biden on Twitter to lift an embargo on exporting raw materials it needs to make Covid-19 vaccines.

The US has used the Defense Production Act to boost its own vaccine production, resulting in exports of critical raw materials being stopped.

Poonawalla earlier said that the ban is hurting SII’s ability to produce doses of the Novavax vaccine, which has shown promising efficacy in clinical trials and is only the second dose after the one made by Oxford-AstraZeneca

to have signed a billion doses deal for supply to poor countries.

“Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details,” Poonawalla tweeted on Friday.

Other vaccine makers, too, have flagged the American embargo for hobbling vaccine production in other parts of the world.

Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer for Moderna, said on Tuesday at an online event that export embargoes were also preventing American vaccine makers from exporting shots globally and resulting in shortages, Associated Press reported.

The Novavax vaccine is being seen as key to India in particular since SII has the manufacturing licenses, and the Indian government recently announced a fasttrack route for doses that get approved in western countries.

He earlier told the Associated Press that pivoting away from suppliers in the US could result in a delay of up to six months for the production of the vaccine developed by Novavax, which is one of the doses with large commitments to the Covax Facility.

The other is Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine, although the US ban does not affect its production. Earlier this month, Poonawalla said during a TV interview that his company manufactured 60 to 65 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine every month and that it required ₹3,000 crore to increase production by June.

Poonawalla also said that AstraZeneca served SII a legal notice over delays in supplying the vaccine. “AstraZeneca has sent us a legal notice and the

Indian government is also aware of that,” he told Business Standard.

“I cannot comment on the legal notice as it is confidential, but we are examining all avenues to amicably manage and resolve legal disputes over contractual obligations that Serum Institute is not able to fulfil due to its prioritisation of Indian supplies.”

Experts, activists and politicians have called rich nations in particular to do more for equitable distribution of vaccines. In the US, 10 Democratic senators are urging Biden to back India and South Africa’s appeal to the World Trade Organization to temporarily relax intellectual property rules so coronavirus vaccines can be manufactured by nations that are struggling to inoculate their populations.