US to soon facilitate export of vaccine raw materials in India

The United States will soon ease restrictions it imposed on the export of some raw materials required to augment the production of the Covid-19 vaccines in India, where the raging second wave of the pandemic is wreaking havoc.

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President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan spoke to his counterpart in New Delhi, Ajit Doval, over the phone and conveyed to him that the US had already identified sources of specific raw materials urgently required for manufacturing AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccines in India.

He also assured Doval that the raw materials would immediately be made available for India, according to the spokesperson of the US National Security Council, Emily Horne.

Sullivan told Doval that the US would also immediately provide India with therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) not only to help treat the Covid-19 patients but also to protect frontline health workers. The US was also pursuing options to provide oxygen generators and related supplies urgently.

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The Biden Administration had invoked the American Defence Production Act (DPA) in February to impose restrictions on the export from the US some raw materials required for the production of the 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 the production of vaccines in India.

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

The US is deploying an expert team of public health advisors from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID to work in close collaboration with the US Embassy, India’s health ministries, and India’s Epidemic Intelligence Service staff. USAID will also quickly work with CDC to support and fast-track the mobilization of emergency resources available to India through the Global Fund, Sullivan told Doval.