India: shortage in one of the great champions of vaccine manufacturing

AstraZeneca vaccines at the Serum Institute of India in Pune, January 21, 2021. AP - Rafiq Maqbool

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The pandemic is reaching unprecedented severity in India.

In a few days, the “Indian” variant plunged the country into chaos.

Several countries have announced emergency medical aid.

Paradoxically, India, one of the great champions of vaccine manufacturing, is today in a situation of shortage.

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Despite its gigantic production capacities, India can no longer meet its production targets for anti-Covid vaccines.

Main reason: the lack of patents, believes Philippe Abecassis, health economist and lecturer at the University of Paris 13. “ 

The situation in India is quite complex because indeed, they produce a lot of vaccines, but they do not. do not have enough licenses on anti-Covid vaccines, he

explains.

Since vaccines are protected by patents, they do not have the right to mass produce vaccines themselves.

 "

► Read also:

Covid-19 in India: faced with the alarming situation, the EU and the United States will send aid

Second difficulty: India faces a shortage of raw materials from the United States.

The country must also adapt its factories to manufacture these new vaccines.

“ 

For these vaccines,

continues Philippe Abecassis,

they certainly lack mass production plants, in any case an adaptation of their production plants.

They probably lack know-how, manpower, support, since the technologies are not very common.

For me, the biggest handicap is really the patent.

 "

India has administered nearly 141 million doses of Covid vaccine so far, very few compared to the country's 1.3 billion people.

► To read also: Health crisis in India: the great collapse?

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