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;)
克里希纳·N·达斯(Krishna N.Das)新德里，4月9日(路透社)-印度血清研究所(SII)的联合负责人Gavi告诉路透社，印度血清研究所(SII)在法律上被强制要求向全球疫苗共享设施Covax运送冠状病毒疫苗，这一规定可能会使该公司增加国内供应的努力复杂化。印度上个月暂停了所有主要疫苗的出口，以满足国内需求，迫使世界上最大的疫苗制造商将几乎所有生产转移到国内市场。印度的感染人数已飙升至1306万人。Gavi的一位女发言人在一封电子邮件中表示：“该协议具有法律约束力，并作为首轮拨款文件的基础，该文件已传达给所有参与经济体。”协议规定，Gavi将从SII获得11亿剂阿斯利康疫苗或Novavax疫苗，承诺2亿剂，其余部分视情况而定。SII合作伙伴阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)已经就其他发货延误发出了法律通知，尽管印度许多邦都抱怨优先收货人面临短缺。。GAVI表示，其与SII的协议于2月15日世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)批准阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)注射后生效，此前有消息人士称，SII原本应从5月份开始向Covax发送剂量。Gavi补充说：“SII已经承诺，除了向印度供货外，它还将优先考虑Covax多边解决方案，以实现公平分配。”Covax原本预计2月至5月期间从SII获得的总剂量超过1亿剂，但不包括对印度的供应，但到目前为止只收到了约1820万剂。Gavi说，血清已经通过Covax向印度政府发送了另外1000万剂。周五，GAVI没有回应有关目前面临的问题。SII也没有立即回复记者的置评请求。印度最初的目标是在8月份为3亿高危人群接种疫苗，略高于该国13.5亿人口的五分之一，现在印度将这一数字提高了约1亿，这增加了SII增加供应的压力。该公司首席执行官阿达尔·普纳瓦拉(Adar Poonawalla)本周告诉媒体，印度可能会在6月份之前恢复疫苗出口。该公司还向新德里寻求4.03亿美元的赠款，以期在5月底之前将月产量从6500万剂提高到7000万剂以上。周四，印度外交部表示，内需将决定印度出口的程度。它已经运送了6450万剂，并在国内发放了9200万剂。(全球疫苗接种追踪机构：)(追踪冠状病毒全球传播的互动图形：)/>FACTBOX-全球冠状病毒死亡人数超过300万冠状病毒：已知与未知Factbox-冠状病毒全球传播的最新情况 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>(Krishna N.Das，Neha Arora和Euan Rocha报道；编辑：Clarence Fernandez)(Krishna.Das@tr.com；+91 987111 8314；)
译文内容由第三方软件翻译。