Page 132 - NPPA full book

Meeting the domestic demand too

The massive production of COVID vaccines helped India administer 2.2 billion doses as a part of the world’s largest COVID

vaccination drive resulting in saving 3.4 million lives. When some countries struggled with vaccine hesitancy, India presented

an exemplary pro-vaccination COVID management model.

At the very onset of the pandemic, India’s idea was clear - The pandemic is global so should be the vaccine.

Efforts for TRIPS Waiver

India, along with African partners, was instrumental in calling on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to suspend
intellectual property (IP) rights related to COVID-19 to ensure that not just the wealthiest countries would have access

to and afford the vaccines, medicines, and new technologies that would help control the pandemic.

Developing and underdeveloped countries also required affordable vaccines and drugs to protect their population as a

waiver would open space for further collaboration, transfer of technology and more producers to come in to ensure that
the world has scalability in a much shorter period of time.

Ultimately, constant efforts of India at the WTO culminated in a waiver of TRIPS for five years to help developing

countries manufacture patented COVID vaccines to deal with the vagaries of the deadly virus.

India is a member of the COVAX, Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator, Developing Countries Vaccine Manufactures
Network (DCVMN), and other collaborations offering subsidized supplies to the international community for equitable

distribution of vaccines. Several foreign companies are now looking to tie-up with Indian pharmaceutical companies for vaccine

manufacturing in their home countries for resilience and growth. In this series, ambassadors of 100 countries have visited the

Serum Institute of India Ltd and Gennova Biopharma facility in Pune, Maharashtra. Many African nations look to benefit from
this.

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