COVAX says India's Serum Institute bound to supply virus vaccines
COVAX says India's Serum Institute bound to supply virus vaccines
By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, April 9 (Reuters) - The Serum Institute of India (SII) is legally compelled to ship coronavirus vaccine to global vaccine sharing facility COVAX, its co-lead Gavi has told Reuters, a provision that could complicate the firm's efforts to boost domestic supplies.
India, where infections have surged to 13.06 million, suspended all major exports of vaccines last month to fill demand at home, forcing the world's biggest vaccine maker to divert nearly all its production to the domestic market.
"The agreement is legally binding and served as a basis for the first-round allocation document, which has been communicated to all participating economies," a Gavi spokeswoman said in an email.
The pact specified Gavi would receive from SII 1.1 billion doses of either the AstraZeneca vaccine or that of Novavax , with 200 million committed, and the rest on option.
SII partner AstraZeneca has already issued it a legal notice over delays to other shipments, even as many Indian states have complained of a shortage facing priority recipients. .
Gavi said its pact with SII took effect when the World Health Organization approved the AstraZeneca shot on Feb. 15, after a source said SII had originally been supposed to send doses to COVAX only from May.
"SII has pledged that, alongside supplying India, it will prioritise the COVAX multilateral solution for equitable distribution," Gavi added.
COVAX had expected a total of more than 100 million doses from SII between February and May, excluding supplies for India, but has so far received only about 18.2 million.
Serum has sent another 10 million doses to the Indian government through COVAX, Gavi said.
Gavi did not respond on Friday to questions about what now lies ahead. SII also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
From an initial August target of vaccine coverage for 300 million of its highest-risk people, or just over a fifth of its population of 1.35 billion, India has upped the figure by about 100 million, adding pressure on SII to crank up supplies.
India could resume vaccine exports by June, the firm's chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, told media this week.
The firm has also sought $403 million from New Delhi as a grant to boost monthly output to more than 100 million doses by end-May, from 65 million to 70 million now.
On Thursday, the foreign ministry said domestic demand would determine the extent of India's exports. It has already shipped 64.5 million doses and given out 92 million at home.
(Global vaccination tracker: )
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: )
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(Reporting by Krishna N. Das, Neha Arora and Euan Rocha;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
((Krishna.Das@tr.com; +91 987111 8314;)
克里希納·N·達斯(Krishna N.Das)新德里，4月9日(路透社)-印度血清研究所(SII)的聯合負責人Gavi告訴路透社，印度血清研究所(SII)在法律上被強制要求向全球疫苗共享設施Covax運送冠狀病毒疫苗，這一規定可能會使該公司增加國內供應的努力複雜化。印度上個月暫停了所有主要疫苗的出口，以滿足國內需求，迫使世界上最大的疫苗製造商將幾乎所有生產轉移到國內市場。印度的感染人數已飆升至1306萬人。Gavi的一位女發言人在一封電子郵件中表示：“該協議具有法律約束力，並作為首輪撥款文件的基礎，該文件已傳達給所有參與經濟體。”協議規定，Gavi將從SII獲得11億劑阿斯利康疫苗或Novavax疫苗，承諾2億劑，其餘部分視情況而定。SII合作伙伴阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)已經就其他發貨延誤發出了法律通知，儘管印度許多邦都抱怨優先收貨人面臨短缺。。GAVI表示，其與SII的協議於2月15日世界衞生組織(World Health Organization)批准阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)注射後生效，此前有消息人士稱，SII原本應從5月份開始向Covax發送劑量。Gavi補充説：“SII已經承諾，除了向印度供貨外，它還將優先考慮Covax多邊解決方案，以實現公平分配。”Covax原本預計2月至5月期間從SII獲得的總劑量超過1億劑，但不包括對印度的供應，但到目前為止只收到了約1820萬劑。Gavi説，血清已經通過Covax向印度政府發送了另外1000萬劑。週五，GAVI沒有迴應有關目前面臨的問題。SII也沒有立即回覆記者的置評請求。印度最初的目標是在8月份為3億高危人羣接種疫苗，略高於該國13.5億人口的五分之一，現在印度將這一數字提高了約1億，這增加了SII增加供應的壓力。該公司首席執行官阿達爾·普納瓦拉(Adar Poonawalla)本週告訴媒體，印度可能會在6月份之前恢復疫苗出口。該公司還向新德里尋求4.03億美元的贈款，以期在5月底之前將月產量從6500萬劑提高到7000萬劑以上。週四，印度外交部表示，內需將決定印度出口的程度。它已經運送了6450萬劑，並在國內發放了9200萬劑。(全球疫苗接種追蹤機構：)(追蹤冠狀病毒全球傳播的互動圖形：)/>FACTBOX-全球冠狀病毒死亡人數超過300萬冠狀病毒：已知與未知Factbox-冠狀病毒全球傳播的最新情況 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>(Krishna N.Das，Neha Arora和Euan Rocha報道；編輯：Clarence Fernandez)(Krishna.Das@tr.com；+91 987111 8314；)
譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。