In order to scale up production of Covid-19 vaccines, scaling up partnerships, technology transfers and supply of various critical equipment and materials is necessary to cater to the huge demand for vaccines said Bharat Biotech Joint MD Suchitra Ella on Saturday.
Ella, speaking at the EU-India Business Roundtable said that more emphasis should be on fostering partnerships and continuous supplies of critical materials which are of utmost importance to scale up production of vaccines to cater to the domestic and the global demand rather than patent relaxations.
In order to cater to the vaccine demand of a populous country like India, collaboration is very necessary.
Ella said that Bharat Biotech is registering Covaxin in the US and would be glad to do that in Europe.
“India is a large country, we cannot vaccinate 2.6 billion (two doses for 1.3 billion people) of our population, that needs it in this point in time”, she added.
Ella added further, “I know that we all know this and understand the crux of it. But, I am sure we can bring in more technologies or maybe patents can be relaxed a bit and we as Indian manufacturers would be able to pitch in and run with new technologies and deploy them in our facilities.”
“We can deploy mRNA technology, subunit vaccines and the whole gamut of biological material, and may a technology transfer,” she said.
These measures will not only help in catering to the vaccine needs of India but will also help to send vaccines outside India at the earliest possible time.
“We value partnerships and we ensure the knowledge sharing and mutual handholding go a long way in developing many life-saving solutions not only for India but for global markets,” she implied.
While explaining the idea of collaborations and sharing, she also said that certain critical equipment are not able to reach India from the European Union due to blockages.
“There are process equipment which are backlogged in Europe right now. It is not a complaint, I am just saying that the amount of quantities we are ordering is probably throwing the supplies off. These are unprecedented numbers. So, I think it is important to share knowledge, technology and to respect each other’s area of interest,” Ella said.
She emphasized the need for the supply of raw materials to India because it is critical to manufacturing the vaccine.
“I want to reiterate that patents are important but I don’t see them as a huge challenge right now. What we need is technology transfers and certain materials for vaccine production which come for Europe,” she said.
Bharat Biotech is in the process of ramping up production to 70 crore doses per annum.
India is suffering the brunt of widespread Covid-19 infections which has caused the healthcare system and hospitals to collapse at certain places. To deal with this crisis, the government has opened vaccinations for the age group of 18 to 44 years. The procurement of vaccines has been left to states due to which there is a constant rush of states going to vaccine makers who can only meet a small part of the demand.
