Institute of India in Pune in November , 2020 , Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined that “ India considers vaccines as not only vital to good health but also as a global good , and it is India ’ s duty to assist other countries , including the nations in our neighbourhood , in the collective fight against the virus ”.
India has been strongly advocating for the principle of equity in the WHO and has also proposed , along with South Africa , a TRIPS waiver at the WTO for COVID vaccines , diagnostics , and medicines . India is working actively with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization , World Health Organization and the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator to realize this goal .
The pandemic push
As per the ‘ India Bioeconomy Report 2022 ’, Covid vaccines made in India alone accounted for
US $ 8.695 billion of the value of the country ’ s biotech sector , while other vaccines accounted for $ 8.672 billion . Vaccine makers Serum Institute of India ( SII ), Bharat Biotech , Biological E , and Zydus Cadila , among others , have increased their installation capacity by three times since 2020 .
The idea of ‘ Aatmanirbhar Bharat ’ and ‘ Made in India ' programs also contributed to motivate and drive the vaccine industry towards vaccine self-sufficiency . During the Covid-19 pandemic , the Indian vaccine industry developed a number of home-grown Covid- 19 vaccines and accomplished an incredible task of vaccinating 70 % of the population with Indian vaccines .
Most of the industry insiders agree that a lot has changed within the vaccine sector during the Covid-19 pandemic . Compared to the times when approvals would be a tedious task ,
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Source : DBT
More research should be conducted on alternative therapies such as monoclonal antibody-based therapies
Prof . Soma Rohatgi , BSBE Dept IIT Roorkee
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BioVoiceNews | October 2022