India’s vaccine ecosystem and Covid response |22 January 2021
The commencement of Covid vaccinations has focused attention on the modern medical miracle of immunisation. It has eradicated some diseases and is close to eradicating others. Universal immunisation is among the most effective and economical health interventions ever devised.
India has one of the largest immunisation systems in the world. Twenty-seven million infants are immunised against 12 diseases annually. India’s nation-wide pulse polio immunisation drive, which made India polio-free, has set global standards for programmes of this nature.
India is also one of the world’s largest vaccine producers. 60% of global vaccine production comes from India. Indian producers supply 1.5 billion doses annually to more than 150 countries. India is the largest supplier of the DPT, BCG and Measles vaccines globally. WHO sources 70% of its essential immunisation vaccines from India.
India is a leader in vaccine R&D with a well-developed ecosystem linking the public and private sectors as well as academia and industry in networks that spur innovation. An indigenously developed low-cost Rotavirus vaccine which protects against childhood diarrhoea, and another against the dreaded Japanese encephalitis, are now included under the Indian Universal Immunisation Programme.
Indian biopharma companies have established themselves as leading manufacturers of standard vaccines and went to produce new and more complex vaccines (e.g. meningitis, H1N1, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines). The indigenous development and production of the Rotavirus vaccine and the Japanese encephalitis vaccine demonstrated that India was emerging as a leader in R&D and affordable product development.
Major Indian vaccine manufacturers include Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech, Panacea Biotech, Sanofis Shanta Biotech, Biological E, Hester Biosciences and ZydusCadila. They have an installed capacity to make 8.2 billion doses of different vaccines in a year. The Pune-based Serum Institute is the world’s largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold globally.
The speed with which the private sector pivoted the development and production of Covid vaccines demonstrates their abilities to take quick research decisions, build partnerships, expand capacity and generate funding.
The Indian vaccine industry, through scale and economies, has impacted not just availability of Covid vaccines in global vaccine market but has brought down prices. Government institutions and regulatory authorities in India have worked closely during the pandemic with the private sector to strengthen the ecosystem to support candidate vaccine development and create enabling regulatory framework.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted India’s position as a reliable stakeholder in global healthcare supply chains with major strengths manufacturing, R&D and innovation.
India’s vaccine capacity and its ability to deliver safe and low-cost vaccines rapidly has been leveraged by global health bodies and non-state actors. GAVI, the vaccine initiative, WHO and the Gates Foundation all source vaccines in bulk from India. It has the largest number of manufacturers who have been prequalified by WHO for international procurement for low and middle income countries. Most of these vaccines are for the global South.
India also works with another major global vaccine initiative, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. BIRAC has initiated an Ind-CEPI project to strengthen development of vaccines for diseases of epidemic potential in India.
India is, because of its strengths in the biopharmaceutical and vaccines domains, one of the major centres in the transnational efforts to counter the pandemic. India will make its vaccine strengths available to the international community for combating the Covid pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said while launching India’s domestic vaccination drive on January 18 that “We are committed that India's vaccines, our production capacity, serve the interest of the whole humanity”.
These Indian responses have a significant element of support to India’s neighbouring countries. In the first round, India is donating these vaccines to Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives and Seychelles.
50,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, made by the Serum Institute of India under the brand name 'Covishield', is being donated by Government of India to Republic of Seychelles on a grant basis, as a testament to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and the importance it places on its relationship with the country. It may be noted that on per capita basis, it is the biggest such donation by India to any country and will cover more than 25% of Seychelles population.
India is not only providing vaccine to Seychelles, but also special training course has been organised for healthcare workers and administrators of Public Health Authority under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, sharing our experience in dealing with the pandemic and administration of vaccine.
Contributed