Covid-19 vaccine raw material supply chain from US to India much better now, says EAM Jaishankar

The supply chain from the United States to India for raw materials required for production of anti-Covid-19 vaccines is much better now than it was about a month back, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said after meeting senior officials of President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington D.C.

An official of the US State Department too said on Saturday that the decision of the Biden administration last month to divert its pending orders with the United States companies for raw materials required for production of vaccines to India would help augment production of the anti-Covid-19 jabs in the South Asian nation by about 2 crore doses.

“This is a very dynamic situation, it keeps changing. You know, there are new demands, a lot of new vaccines are coming out. But definitely, I'd say, if you were to ask me today, May 28th, as opposed to April 30th, is it better or worse? I would say it is very much better,” Jaishankar told journalists as he concluded his five-day visit to the United States. He was replying to a query on his discussion with the top US officials on addressing the issue of supply chain constraints.

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The External Affairs Minister said that the feedback he had received from the industry leaders was that the supply chain was working more smoothly now.

The Biden Administration had earlier this year invoked the US Defence Production Act (DPA) to impose restrictions on export of some raw materials required for production of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines. The move was aimed at ramping up production and increasing availability of the vaccines in the US. But it also slowed down production of the vaccines in India.

The US, however, insisted that it had never imposed a ban on export of the raw materials and equipment required for production of the vaccines.

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“Now, we have redirected our own order of AstraZeneca manufacturing supplies to India, which will facilitate the production of over 20 million doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccines (Covishield developed by AstraZeneca plc and produced by the Serum Institute of India) in India,” said Dean Thompson, the acting Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs of the US State Department. He was briefing mediapersons about the External Affairs Minister’s meeting with the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The US move to divert to India raw materials required for production of the vaccines came late last month after the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the South Asian nation.

Adar Poonawala, the Chief Executive Officer of the Serum Institute of India, had last month taken to Twitter to urge the US Government to lift the embargo on export of raw materials required to make vaccines in India – like reagents, plastic tubing material, nano-filters and bioreactor bags.