The European Union has asked India to let it buy 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccine AstraZeneca from the Indian Serum Institute, and a government official told RushHourDaily, the latest sign of growing pressure on Delhi to export more of its production to other countries. The EU wants a dose of Serum, the most prominent vaccine maker in the world, to offset the lack of supply from European plants AstraZeneca and speed up the shots roll out.
However, the rapid agreement of the European Union’s demand is not possible, with the race for India to expand its domestic vaccination drive, said Indian government officials, who asked not to be named. England also pressed India to export the second half of the 10 million doses that it ordered from the Serum, said the source.
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Serum initially should produce AstraZeneca vaccines only for low and medium-income countries. “The European Union’s ambassador wrote a letter by saying, please give us an approval,” said the source, adding that the letter was sent about two weeks ago.
Serum, AstraZeneca, and the Indian Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comments. A spokesman for the EU Commission refused to comment on the development. But India said that it was now focused on expanding its immunization drive because the cases have surged since March.
Its decision to focus on the domestic needs, which came after the government was criticized at home for tens of millions of doses abroad, would also affect the WHO-supported global network for vaccine distribution, known as COVAX. This network aims to secure the Covid-19 vaccine, especially for dozens of developing countries.
Production disorders have slowed vaccinations for 450 million people in the UE 27-nation. Block per capita immunization left behind from countries such as Israel, Britain, and the United States, according to our world website in the data here.
India has so far exported 64 million doses of vaccines to 83 countries and gave the same number of doses at home. The inoculation drive expanded from Thursday to include everyone over 45 years, which is expected to increase the vaccine demand substantially. India has reported 12.22 million Coronavirus cases, the third-highest number globally after the United States and Brazil.
