India running out of Covid jabs putting global supplies under threat

India is running out of Covid vaccines amid a brutal second wave that has seen both cases and deaths in the country soar to record levels.

At least five Indian states are now reporting shortages of jabs and are urging the government to meet domestic demand, which it has previously done by restricting jab exports.

If exports are restricted further then it would harm global supplies - including 5million doses of AstraZeneca bound for the UK - as India typically produces 60 percent of vaccines used worldwide and is home to the world’s largest vaccine-maker, the Serum Institute of India (SII).

COVAX, the programme which is responsible for delivering jabs to poorer countries, has now warned that deliveries of jabs from SII will be delayed until at least the end of the month due to ‘increased demand in India’.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UK’s Department of Health was unable to say when 5million AstraZeneca doses due to arrive this month will actually turn up - but added that the UK is not expecting any doses from India after that.

The country’s second wave is thought to be driven by a double-mutated version of Covid - now present in the UK - which scientists believe makes the virus both more infectious and may reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines.

There are several challenges contributing to the shortages -- one being the supply of raw materials, said former ICMR director general Nirmal Kumar Ganguly.

India “has the capacity to produce,” Ganguly added, but supply chains have been disrupted during the pandemic. The vaccine formulas and required materials “cannot be changed overnight, so we have to rely on the raw materials being imported.”

The US has placed a temporary ban on exporting raw materials critical for vaccine production -- and the EU has similarly tightened restrictions around vaccine exports. India is now working to “adapt to the materials which are made at home or the neighboring countries like Singapore,” but this will take time, said Ganguly.

The chief executive of Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines and a critical supplier of the UN-backed COVAX facility, asked President Joe Biden on Twitter to lift the US embargo on exporting raw materials needed to make the jabs.

Vaccine makers and experts in India have been concerned that the use of the Defense Production Act by the US to boost their own vaccine production was resulting in exports of critical raw materials being stopped. This was hobbling vaccine production in other parts of the world.

Stéphane Bancel, CEO for Moderna, said Tuesday in an online event that export embargoes were also preventing American vaccine makers from exporting shots globally and resulting in shortages.

“If we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up,” wrote Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India.

He had earlier said that pivoting away from suppliers in the US could result in a delay of up to six months for the production of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax. Serum Institute and Novavax have inked a deal to supply 1.1 billion doses of the vaccine to COVAX to equitably distribute it across the globe.

-Agencies