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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Economy
India
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