| A year ago AstraZeneca signed a crucial deal with the Serum Institute of India Ltd. meant to help end the coronavirus pandemic in the poorest nations as richer ones raced to secure and hog early vaccine supplies. Serum, the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines, pledged to provide at least 1 billion doses for use by a global access program, with 400 million of those ready by the end of 2020. Yet a month into 2021, Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said only 70 million shots were ready due to uncertainty around when the inoculation would receive approval from India. The company, owned by a family of billionaire race-horse breeders from western India, also didn't have enough storage space, he said. The dashing of that early promise was just a taste of things to come. A fire at Serum's factory in January, along with patchy ordering from India's government, a chaotic rollout at home and a shortage of raw materials needed to make vaccines further hampered the company's abilities to fill orders.  Adar Poonawalla Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg Since April, Serum has been unable to send any shots overseas after India's government halted exports of Covid vaccines amid the country's devastating second wave. The Covax program, which was set up to purchase shots for about 90 low- and middle-income nations, has received only 30 million of the minimum 200 million doses it ordered from Serum. While Serum's manufacturing capacity is now expanding, Covax and many developing countries are scrambling to find new sources of vaccines after Poonawalla said exports are unlikely to resume until the end of 2021 given the needs of his overwhelmed homeland. Under intense criticism for its handling of the pandemic, India's government also upped its orders, purchasing hundreds of millions of doses from multiple producers within its borders. Yet despite being the hub of global vaccine production, the South Asian country will likely struggle to ramp up its inoculation drive fast enough to prevent another devastating wave of infections.—Chris Kay | 
Post a Comment