India’s Role in Vaccinating the World
Biotech “Superheros” to the Rescue!
In the ongoing battle to wrestle the COVID-19 pandemic under control, both developed and developing nations have found themselves co-dependent for cooperation. These includes pooling of information to managing aids ranging from supplies of PPE to ventilators. The unique role India played prior to the pandemic in vaccine production will be amplified as additional approved vaccines need to be manufactured and distributed on a global scale. This responsibility will fall on a group of companies who are among the “vaccine superheros” the world needs right now.
India’s pharmaceutical industry, dubbed “The World’s Pharmacy”, is known as a leading producer of generic medicine. In the next phase of the pandemic, India will play an important global role in the production of low-cost vaccines. Already, 92 countries have approached India requesting COVID-19 vaccines and doses are being sent to the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
India’s Vaccine Production Capabilities
Central to the vaccine production capability is the Serum Institute of India (SII) which has struck partnerships with several vaccine developers including the AZ/Oxford vaccine. Their high volume but low cost approach will have to create enough doses to meet both domestic needs and demand from abroad. There already exists inequity in vaccine distribution with capacity primarily being bought by high income countries. The Covax initiative was meant to address this gap by raising money to supply vaccines to countries who could not afford them.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that India’s vaccine production capabilities will help “all humanity” and the SII has pledged a 50–50 split of vaccine production between India vs the rest of the world. The SII has funding from the Gavi alliance to supply doses for Covax initiative. The deal also commits to producing the vaccine at a lower price. Indian companies have historically played major roles in global health crises. Cipla famously provided low cost antiretroviral treatment to developing countries such as Thailand during the AIDS crisis. As more vaccines and COVID-19 treatments are approved, Indian biotech companies will continue to find themselves as vital to worldwide supply.
Novel Vaccines from Indian Companies
While the SII takes prominence in terms of vaccine production, efforts for vaccine development within India will impact the reach of vaccination. Bharat Biotech’s recently approved vaccine (Covaxin) uses a weakened virus as the mode of delivery and can last at least a week kept at room temperature. Cold chain storage is a major problem for vaccine distribution and could especially hinder distribution in developing countries. While there are concerns that this vaccine was approved while Phase 3 results are still pending, the Indian government’s intention could be to build up production capabilities for this particular technology in the meantime. The logic possibly being that there will be a lag by the time manufacturing infrastructure is in place and Phase 3 results should be available to the public by then. Other vaccine candidates, including the plasmid vaccine being developed by Cadila Healthcare and even Russia’s Sputnik vaccine which is going through India’s regulatory process led by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, will also help ensure that there are sufficient doses available.
On the road ahead, the COVID-19 pandemic could mark where India rises to even higher levels in terms of being critical to the global supply of medicines. New technologies, including vaccines with intranasal delivery mode which are being developed by Indian company Codagenix in partnership with the SII, will be necessary to achieve widespread inoculation. India’s existing cost-effective production capabilities combined with emerging innovation will determine how the developing world is able to cope with the pandemic going forward.
About the Author:
Lakshmi is a Business Development Manager for Genedata’s Profiler product which enables multi-omic data integration for a precision medicine appraoch to clinical trials. She is formerly Program Director for GenomeAsia 100K. Her educational background includes a Bachelor’s in Economics from UC Berkeley and Master’s in Biotechnology from University of Pennsylvania.
