COVID-19 and second wave: can India become self-sufficient in vaccines?

Dear Editor,

India, which is the largest producer of generic drug across the globe, started its vaccination drive in January 2021.¹ On a humanitarian ground, India exported COVID-19 vaccines to different countries;² little did they expect that a second wave was ahead of them.

With the second wave hitting Indians drastically and unexpectedly,³ India is struggling to vaccinate its population.⁴ India today needs more than 2 billion doses of vaccines to vaccinate 80% of the population (to attain herd immunity) and a shortage of vaccines has hit the rate of inoculation so hard. With the current rate of vaccination being 1.5 million doses of per day, it will take at least 3 years and 8 months to reach the 80%.⁵ However, the government has planned to achieve this target of 80% by December 2021.

Can Indian industry meet up to the demand to produce vaccines? Of course, it is not an easy task, but yet not impossible. The various possibilities to do this are as follows.

1. From industry’s perspective, the existing capabilities need to be fully exploited. Central government should also ensure that vaccines are not wasted and provide all support to industries and state governments.

2. Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India, the frontrunners of vaccine producers in India must share the vaccine formula to other leading pharmaceutical companies. However, proper logistics have to be planned between these major manufacturers so that aseptic filling can be operated with ease.

3. As part of corporate social responsibility, every industry must contribute fund to the central and state governments to gear up vaccine logistics; be it production or procurement.

4. Sufficient dialogs need to be carried out so that foreign vaccine production is licensed in India.

5. Research must be geared by pharmaceutical industries to explore the possibility of single dose to provide adhoc relief and safety.

6. India can also think about buying vaccines commissioned by different countries. Excess capacities in vaccinated countries can also be tapped.

7. India being a federal system, more autonomy in decision-making is to be given to state governments in taking policy decisions.

However, with few options ahead of us, one needs to sit and wait to see what becomes realistic.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author(s).