Covid-19 vaccine to be ready in weeks: Modi
At all-party meet on Covid-19, PM says India will use indigenously made vaccines
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told an all-party meeting on Friday that in next few weeks, Indian manufacturers would be able to produce the much-awaited coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines, while also indicating that the country will use indigenously made vaccines as the government looks for cheap but effective vaccines.
Talking about India’s vaccine preparations at the meeting held through video-conference to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the country, the Prime Minister said, “Experts believe we don’t have to wait for a long period to get a vaccine. It is understood that in next few weeks, Covid vaccines will be ready. The government is waiting for a go-ahead from the scientists.”
The Covid-19 vaccine candidates from Moderna and Pfizer, which are claimed to be 95% effective, are much higher priced than India’s potential immunisation candidates.
While the steeply-priced Pfizer vaccine has already got emergency authorisation from the UK with vaccination set to start next week, Modi indicated that his government is likely to wait for a vaccine that is made in India.
“The world is looking at a cheap but effective vaccine against Covid-19. The world is looking at India. You can be assured our scientists are working hard. Eight Covid-19 vaccines are at different stages of preparedness in India. This includes the three Indian vaccines that are at different stages of trials.”
The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is manufacturing the vaccine candidate being jointly developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford that had shown to be at least 62% (and up to 90%) effective in an interim analysis. Zydus Cadila in Ahmedabad and Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad have developed their own inoculation against the Sars-Cov-2, the contagion that causes Covid-19, that are into advanced stages of clinical trials.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is among the global front-runners in terms of volumes produced and clinical trial progress, and is being closely watched because it is cheaper and easier to transport than its only rivals that have shown efficacy till now: the mRNA vaccines by Moderna and
Pzifer-BioNTech. All of these vaccines have a two-dose regimen.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is also being tested among Indian volunteers as part of global phase 3 trials in different populations.
Last week, Modi had visited Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune to review vaccine development.
In Friday’s all-party meet, the Prime Minister, for the first time, also laid down the principles of vaccine administration. “The first priority would be given to healthcare workers, frontline workers and old people with comorbidities.”
He also told the parliamentary leaders of different parties that India has the best expertise and capacity in vaccine distribution —indicating the existing vaccine network of universal immunisation. “We will fully use it,” he said.
Floor leaders of various parties in Parliament, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, were among those who attended the meeting. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Pralhad Joshi and Harsh Vardhan were also present.
Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) suggested that the cost of the Covid-19 vaccine be kept affordable and that the government even consider offering it free of cost for the economically vulnerable sections.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Azad said that the country should be well placed to get vaccines at affordable prices and at an early stage. Scientists, policy makers and political leaders must work together to set parameters for vaccine prioritisation and distribution, he added.
This was the second all-party meeting called by the government to discuss the Covid-19 situation since the outbreak of the deadly virus that has infected over 9.5 million people and claimed nearly 140,000 lives in the country.
The expansive network of India’s long-standing universal immunisation programme will provide the crucial logistical support for the government for administering Covid-19 vaccines next year, HT had reported on Tuesday.
Officials involved in the planning told HT that they expect the existing infrastructure and human resources would be sufficient to vaccinate the first 30 million Indians or the priority groups 1 and 2. But India might need to substantially beef up its capacities if it needs to give vaccines to the priority group of aged population.
“Out of the 239,000-strong force of vaccinators of the existing immunisation programme, at least 150,000 workers would be used for administering Covid vaccines to the first two priority groups tentatively from January to March, 2021,” said a top government official.
“Similarly”, the officer added, “the existing 29,000 cold storage chains would be enough to store and distribute 60 million vaccines required for the two priority groups during this period.”