Srinagar: United Kingdom will receive its first tranche of 10 million CoVID vaccine doses next week from Serum Institute of India (SII), a move that has created an uproar among healthcare activists over rich countries hoarding the vaccine at the cost of the poor.
Experts say millions of people in poor countries will miss out on the coronavirus vaccine next year if the trend continues.
Malini Aisola, Co-convenor of All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), a civil society organization working for patients’ rights, said, “The licensing agreement between AstraZeneca and Serum Institute was done with the stated intention of serving the needs of Low Middle-Income Countries. AstraZeneca, which has been falling behind on production, has begun drawing on Serum Institute to fulfill its orders in wealthy countries.”
Aisola says the rich hoarding the vaccine undermines the global efforts to ensure everyone in the world is protected from the COVID-19.
“Will the influencers so up in arms about the Indian Government sending small quantities of vaccines to neighbors in an act of solidarity be equally upset about doses going to rich countries to service AstraZeneca’s orders?” she said.
People’s Vaccine Alliance says 90 percent of the population in 67 poorer countries will miss out on the CoVID vaccine next year because most of the doses have been taken by rich countries.
These 67 poor countries can vaccinate only one out of 10 while rich countries have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over.
The rich nations that are home to 14 percent population have bought 53 percent of the total doses produced across the world.
They include European Union, United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, New Zealand, Israel, and Kuwait.
“These countries are looking out for themselves and guilty of monopolising the global supply of vaccines while also blocking measures such as the TRIPS waiver proposal advanced by India and South Africa in the WTO that would enable ramping up of global production to facilitate access in developing countries,” Aisola said
As of March 4, India had vaccinated 16.53 million of its citizens while the U.K. vaccinated 22 million, from a population of 1.4 billion and 70 million respectively.
“The U.K. has ordered 100 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, of which 10 million doses will come from the Serum Institute of India,” a U.K. government spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
The 10 million doses form part of the U.K.’s original 100 million dose agreement with AstraZeneca. The SII was inspected by the U.K.’s Medicines and Health products Regulatory Authority and batches will be tested before use in the U.K.
“The Serum Institute is one part of our supply chain for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which also includes production in parts of the EU as well as here in the U.K,” the spokesperson said.
The U.K. had sought assurances from SII that providing British doses wouldn’t come at the expense of manufacturing the vaccine for poorer countries, the spokesperson said.
Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni, from The People’s Vaccine Alliance, noted that in the current system, pharmaceutical companies are using public funding for research, but retaining exclusive rights to the technology developed.
Activists say rich countries are willing to take vaccines being produced for poor countries but they won’t yield on multilateral fora to permit the expansion of production which would benefit developing countries.
The new infection cases are rising in India as 17,407 were reported on Thursday, taking the total tally to 1,11,56,923. The death toll has climbed to 1,57,435.
India has recorded a total of 242 cases of the UK, South Africa, and Brazil variants of the novel coronavirus infection, the Government said on Thursday.
So far, India’s ill-equipped and overstretched public healthcare has given just 16.5m jabs, with 0.8 doses administered per 100 people.
India’s recovery rate stands at 97.03 percent. Globally, more than 115 million people have been infected by the coronavirus and 2.58 million have died so far.
India has begun the second phase of the vaccination drive. People above the age of 60 years or over 45 years with comorbidities will receive the shot in the second phase. India’s drug regulator has granted restricted emergency use approval for two vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin.
