Raw material imports from US to produce vaccines may take a month

It may take over a month for India to be able to import certain raw materials from the US that are required for producing Covid-19 vaccines.
 
“Discussions are going on at the highest level between both nations. Some progress on the matter can be expected over the next four-six weeks,” a person aware of the matter said.
 
The Joe Biden administration’s decision to invoke the US Defense Production Act has blocked exports of crucial raw materials used in vaccine production. The law requires local manufacturers to prioritise central government orders, a decision that was taken to battle the raging pandemic.

 

“We are in touch with all the key stakeholders and are working on enhancing US-India collaboration so that India has what it needs to achieve its vaccination targets. We expect that there will be positive developments on this front soon,” Alexander Slater, deputy managing director, US-India Business Council, told Business Standard.
 
Though both nations have been engaging on this issue, the way ahead could be tricky as it is a politically sensitive issue. Besides, the US is yet to vaccinate its entire population, which is the country’s priority at the moment, the official cited above said. The person added that once the administration is convinced that there are adequate vaccine supplies, the law may not be applied. Currently, the US is vaccinating its population on a war footing and has made all adults eligible for vaccination.

 
Last week, Serum Institute of India’s (SII’s) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla urged US President Biden to lift the embargo on raw material exports. Relaxing the curbs will help SII, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, ramp up production at a time when India is witnessing a massive surge in Covid-19 cases, he said.
 
However, he said, the blocking of exports will not impact the production of Covishield, but could hurt the manufacture of Covovax. Last year, US-headquartered Novavax inked a supply and licence agreement with SII for the development and commercialisation of its Covid-19 vaccine.
 
“The reason it’s critical for Covovax is because we’re starting to stockpile it, and manufacture it this month itself. So that’s why it’s already critical that the US releases this. I’m going to leave it to the diplomatic channels of the two countries to try and see what can happen and they have acknowledged India’s requirement of the raw materials, and they are looking at how that can be managed,” Poonawalla told news channel CNBC TV18 on Wednesday.

 
“And it is a crisis for production, which right now we could be making twice as much if we had those raw materials. Having said that, in the next four to five months we’ve made adequate arrangements from other suppliers, outside of the US, which is good news. So this is only a temporary problem. So that’s the urgency…,” Poonawalla said.