A healthcare worker fills a syringe with a dose of COVID 19 vaccination called COVAXIN, during the coronavirus disease COVID - 19 vaccination campaign at All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, India, January 16, 2021. NEW DELHI, Oct 19 Reuters - India has delayed the development of vaccine on the COVAX Global Sharing Platform, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday, a day after one of its key backers, the WHO, said the agency could not cut corners to approve a domestically developed vaccine.
The world's largest vaccine maker resumed exports of COVID - 19 doses for the first time since April last month. It has sent about 4 million to countries such as neighboring Bangladesh and Iran, but none was to COVAX. On Monday, in the run-up to an Oct. 26 meeting on Covaxin, the world health organization WHO said it would not cut corners in the approval decision.
One of the sources said it was frustrating that India had yet to supply COVAX, despite a promise last month by the minister of health to raise the commitment to COVAX and others over the quarter to December.
The sources, who had been briefed on the export negotiations, declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak on the subject.
The Serum Institute of India SII the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer has contracts to supply hundreds of millions of doses of a licensed version of AstraZeneca AZN.L vaccine to India and countries such as Bangladesh.
Its output of the vaccine has more than tripled since April to reach 220 millions doses daily.
India's health ministry, whose COVAX co-leads, the WHO and GAVI, did not respond to requests for comment.
Late supplies of COVAX could disrupt inoculation drives in many African nations that rely on it for vaccine supplies.
Indian government officials have said they are confident that the WHO will soon approve an emergency use listing for Covaxin, which makes up 11% of the 990 million vaccine doses given in India, with the rest mostly from AstraZeneca.
Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of SII, told the Telegraph newspaper a few weeks ago that his company would recommence exports to COVAX in October.
Initially these supplies will be small, but by January 2022, once we have satisfied domestic demands we will see large volumes go to COVAX, he added. Before India halted overseas vaccine shipments in April to meet domestic demand, it donated or sold more than 66 million doses of COVID -19 including covaxin.