In a study published in reputed medical journal the BMJ earlier this week, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public H...
In a study published in reputed medical journal the BMJ earlier this week, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health noted that a quarter of the world’s population would be unlikely to have access to Covid-19 vaccines until 2022.
The global multilateral effort, COVAX, is meant to counter a situation exactly like this one, with the promise to provide fair and equitable access to vaccines. But the sequence in which vaccine manufacturers will fill orders is unclear. Will bilateral purchase obligations take precedence over multinational organisations?
Scroll.in spoke to K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India on how soon India could have access to vaccines and the potential challenges we face.
Three vaccine candidates have applied for EUA, emergency use authorisation, in India:
- The Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine being manufactured here by the Serum Institute of India.
- Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine
- The indigenously developed Covaxin by Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech.
It is reported that Indian regulators will wait for the assessment of the Oxford vaccine by the UK regulator before making its own. This vaccine, in all likelihood, will be the one available for phase 1 of vaccination in India. It is unclear though as to how many doses will be available.
Pfizer-BioNTech has asked for some more time to make a presentation before the committee. This vaccine...
