- Sunday, March 30, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Indian government has faced a heavy criticism over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected more than 28 million people in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been particularly slammed after a devastating second wave has wreaked havoc across the nation, even endangering the rural belts. The government has also found the vaccination drive challenging and its ambitious goal of inoculating all adult Indians by the end of December this year has been questioned by the country’s Supreme Court.
To speed up the process and deal with the shortage of jabs, India has now ordered 300 million doses of a vaccine which is still unapproved. The government has made a deal with local manufacturer Biological-E to buy the remedy which is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials after showing promising results in the first two phases.
According to reports, the doses will be made from August to December and the government was set to pay Rs 1500 crore (USD 206 million) to the firm which is based in the city of Hyderabad in the southern state of Telangana. The vaccine is likely to be available in the next few months.
Moneycontrol on Thursday, June 3, reported that the proposal of Biological-E was recommended for approval after due diligence by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19.
‘Indian govt aims to encourage domestic vax makers’
“The arrangement with Biological-E is part of the wider endeavour of Government of India to encourage indigenous vaccine manufacturers by providing them support in Research & Development (R&D) and also financial support,” the government said.
The Indian government has backed the Biological-E Covid-19 vaccine from the pre-clinical stage to Phase II studies. The Department of Biotechnology under the Indian government’s Ministry of Science and Technology has provided a grant-ain-aid of more than Rs 100 crore besides supporting the Hyderabad firm to carry out all animal challenge and assay studies through Research Institute Translational Health Science Technology Institute, Faridabad, Haryana, the Moneycontrol report added.
India’s current vaccination rate has been called slow as it has managed to inoculate just over 220 million people out of a total population of more than 1.4 billion. Less than 10 percent of the country has got at least one dose. Contrast these figures with the fact that India is seeing tens of thousands of new cases being added everyday. India has briskly bridged its gap with the US, the worst-affected nation in the world but with a much lesser population while its death toll of more than 340,000 stands third after the US (596,000) and Brazil (469,388).
India is currently administering three vaccines – Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India; Covaxin, developed by the domestic Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research and Sputnik V, which has been developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.
