India can produce 5 billion doses of Covid vaccines this year, says Narendra Modi

Asserting that India has the capacity to produce 5 billion doses of Covid vaccines this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday proposed changes in the World Trade Organisation rules and streamlining of the WHO processes to ensure a secured global supply chain of Covid-19 vaccines for the benefit of low and medium-income countries.

“We must build a resilient global supply chain and enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines. The WTO rules need to be more flexible. The World Health Organisation must be reformed and strengthened to build a more resilient global health security architecture,” Modi told the world leaders at the second Global Covid Summit.

“We supplied over 200 million doses to 98 countries bilaterally and through 'Covax' (a UN initiative). We call for streamlining WHO's approval process for vaccines and therapeutics to keep the supply chain stable and predictable.”

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The Prime Minister's comments come amidst a WHO assessment that Covax's supply was severely constrained and unreliable for most of 2021 because rich countries made advance purchases of bulk doses and the handful of vaccine manufacturers didn't expand their footprints in other countries.

“The Covax's ambition was compromised by hoarding/stockpiling in rich countries, catastrophic outbreaks leading to borders and supply being locked. And a lack of sharing of licenses, technology and know-how by pharmaceutical companies meant manufacturing capacity went unused,” the UN health body had stated in January when Covax delivered its one billionth Covid-vaccine dose.

“Our vaccination program is the largest in the world. We have fully vaccinated almost 90 per cent of the adult population and more than 50 million children. India manufactures four WHO-approved vaccines and has the capacity to produce 5 billion doses this year,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister said India's genomics consortium that contributed to the global database of the SARS-CoV-2, would be extended to the neighbouring countries.

In January 2022, Covax partnered with WHO, UNICEF and Gavi to launch the Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, an inter-agency initiative building on existing resources to accelerate vaccination coverage in countries that face the biggest challenges to reaching their vaccination targets.

With absorption and storage capacity at their limits, those furthest behind in coverage require deeper and tailored support to identify and overcome delivery bottlenecks – particularly low-income countries with broader health systems challenges.

The vaccine delivery partnership primarily supports 34 countries - mostly in Africa - that was at or below 10 per cent coverage in January 2022. After three months, 15 of the 34 countries have crossed the 10 per cent threshold and are improving steadily.