India's vaccine maker tweets Biden to permit export of raw material
The top of the world's major vaccine maker directly tweeted US President Joe Biden on Friday, urging him to lift an export ban on raw materials desperately needed to make more corona virus shots.
The unusual step by Serum Institute of India's (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla underlined the crisis in providing vaccines to developing nations, many of which rely heavily on the firm for supplies. "Respected @POTUS (President of the united states), if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry beyond your US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of your US in order that vaccine production can crank up," he tweeted. There is no immediate response from the united states leader on Twitter.
The world's biggest vaccine producer by volume, SII has struggled to meet up demand for the AstraZeneca jab, which it manufactures, after India put the brakes on allowing exports of the shots as it battles a ferocious second wave. Poonawalla said last week that production was "very stressed" and called on the Indian government to supply it with financial assistance.
The business's production of a jab developed by US firm Novavax in addition has hit roadblocks because of the US restrictions, with Poonawalla telling an Indian newspaper last week that the embargo was "as good as banning vaccines".
Developed in record time, the dozen or so Covid-19 vaccines already used around the world have already triggered an exponential increase in production, meaning recycleables are actually running short.
The Serum Institute, which struck a deal to provide 200 million doses to Covax, a World Health Organization-backed effort to procure and distribute inoculations to poor countries, has seen its profile soar because the pandemic, with rich nations also clamouring to get its jab.
But the Covax programme has been hampered by wealthy nations hogging the supply, with the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticising the "shocking and expanding disparity in the global distribution of vaccines".
The company recorded twelve-monthly revenues of more than $800 million in 2019-20, however the export ban has prompted it to ask India's government for financial help since New Delhi pays it less per shot than it earns from overseas sales.
New Delhi announced on Friday that it could provide financial support to Indian vaccine developer Bharat Biotech, so that it could scale up its production of the home-grown Covaxin jab. The government said it aimed to improve production capacity to practically 100 million doses a month by September.
