An AstraZeneca vaccine production line.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, the Serum Institute of India, has been told to respond first to domestic demand for Covid-19 vaccines – before distributing them abroad.
The move implies that foreign governments could face order delays on the part of the company as it puts India’s needs ahead of others.
“Dear countries and governments, while you wait for the supply of #COVISHIELD, please humbly, please be patient,” Adar Poonawalla wrote on Twitter.
He said the Indian Serum Institute (SII) “was directed to prioritize India’s huge needs and, along with this balance, the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best.”
Poonawalla did not explain who gave the directive.
SII declined to comment on Poonawalla’s tweet when contacted by CNBC.
Covishield
Serum Institute manufactures the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, known locally as Covishield.
It is one of two vaccines that have received emergency approval for use in India’s mass inoculation campaign, which aims to vaccinate about 300 million people in the first phase, most of them front-line workers and those with age over 50 years or in high risk groups.
The other vaccine that received emergency approval was developed locally by India Bharat Biotech. It was created in collaboration with the state-run Indian Medical Research Council and has been granted emergency use authorization as clinical trials continue.
Since the launch of the vaccination campaign in January, India has inoculated more than 10.8 million people since February 20, according to the government. The number of daily vaccinations is expected to increase in the coming months.
An army health worker is preparing a dose of Covovield-Covavield-19, Covra-19, AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, at an army hospital in Colombo on January 29, 2021.
sign S. Kodikara | AFP | Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also been granted Covishield emergency listing this month, allowing it to be provided to low- and middle-income countries around the world.
AstraZeneca said it hopes more than 300 million doses will be made available to 145 countries in the first half of 2021 through Covax, a global vaccination initiative led by WHO and others.
Covishield is less expensive compared to some of the other vaccines used – such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. It also does not need to be stored at very low temperatures, making it suitable for use in many developing countries that do not have the necessary storage infrastructure.