The Indian Weekender, 12 March 2021

Editorial
The story that needs
to be told to world:
India’s Covid vaccine
rollout rescued world
from the pandemic
India has not only been living up to its longstanding reputation of being the “pharmacy of the
world,” but has also further reinforced it during the current Covid-19 global pandemic.
There is increasing number of voices, including from several leading global scientists, who
are acknowledging India’s role in the production of Covid-19 vaccines for both domestic and global
consumptions.
The country is one of the world’s biggest drug-makers and an increasing number of countries
have already approached it for procuring vaccines.
Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine
(BCM) in Houston, during a recent webinar, said India’s vaccines, made in collaboration with
universities across the world such as the BCM and Oxford University, have “rescued the world”
and its contributions must not be underestimated.
Quad summit likely to give big push to India-made vaccines in war on Covid-19
Meanwhile, the first ever Indo-Pacific Quad summit on Friday, Mach 12 is likely to give a major
thrust to scaling up India’s efforts to provide affordable vaccines to a larger number of countries for
stepping up the war against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The move comes at a time when there is an acute shortage of vaccines worldwide and the poorer
countries are unable to secure supplies. India has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world’ with the
production of two affordable vaccines.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be participating, along with Prime Minister of
Australia Scott Morrison and Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga and US President Joseph R.
Biden, in the first leaders’ summit of the quadrilateral framework, being held virtually on March 12.
The leaders are expected to discuss ongoing efforts to combat Covid-19 pandemic and explore
opportunities for collaboration in ensuring safe, equitable and affordable vaccines in the Indo-
Pacific region.
It is noteworthy that India has put up a valiant effort in gifting vaccines to its neighbouring
countries to inoculate their frontline workers and also exported stocks worldwide in the ASEAN
region, Africa and Latin America to stem the surging Covid-19 tide.
India has also been successful in neutralising China’s coercive vaccine diplomacy by providing
smaller as well as developing countries with an alternative that has no strings attached. As many as
25 countries have already received India-made vaccines and another 49 nations are in the queue.
The Quad meeting is expected to announce financing agreements to support an increase in
manufacturing capacity for coronavirus vaccines in India, Reuters news agency cited a senior US
administration official as saying.
The financing agreements will be between the United States, Japan and others and focus
particularly on companies and institutions in India manufacturing vaccines for American drug
makers Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson, the official in Washington said.
India contributes to more than 60 per cent of the global vaccine supply and is seen to be well
positioned to play a key role in supporting large-scale vaccine production to combat the global
pandemic.
The Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine maker in the world, is manufacturing the
AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine and also has a licence for producing the Novavax vaccine
as well.
Novavax will supply the doses to high-income countries while SII will supply to the majority
of the low-middle-income and upper-middle income countries utilising tiered pricing schedule.’
Majority of the 1.1 billion doses commitment to the WHO-led Covax programme would come from
SII’s Pune facility.
Another India pharma company, Biological E Ltd, is looking to contract-manufacture roughly
600 million doses of Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine annually. Biological E managing
director Mahima Datla said this would be “in addition to our own product for which we are targeting
approximately 1 billion doses.”
India’s inoculation drive is currently using the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine made at
Serum Institute and the indigenously developed Covaxin by Bharat Biotech with the Indian Council
of Medical Research. The wholly indigenous Bharat Biotech vaccine has cleared the phase 3 human
trials with 81 per cent efficacy and its production on a bigger scale will come as a major boon to
India as well as the rest of the developing world.
Several other vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V, Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCov-D are also
expected to be approved for use soon.
Apart from being affordable, Indian vaccines can be stored at ordinary refrigeration temperatures
of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius making them more practical and easier to handle for developing countries.
The western-made Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, on the other hand, are very expensive and have to
be stored at -80 degrees Celsius which require costly cold-chain infrastructure that does not exist
in most countries.
Thought of the week
“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the
influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in
this notion: The potential for greatness lives within
each of us.” —Wilma Rudolph
12 March – 18 March 2021
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu
On-and-off
rain and
drizzle
22°
14°
Partly
sunny
24°
13°
25°
14°
Indian Weekender : Volume 12 Issue 50
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Parlty
sunny
Clouds and
sun
24°
15°
A touch o
dafr
This week in New Zealand’s history
12 March 1864
Arthur's Pass 'discovered'
25°
25°
Copyright 2020. Kiwi Media Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Sunshine
and pactcy
clouds
26°
15°
A few
morning
showers
26°
17°
The summit of Arthur’s Pass over the Southern Alps between the headwaters of the Ōtira and
Bealey rivers marks the boundary between Canterbury and the West Coast.
12 March 1975
NZ Red Cross worker killed in Vietnam
Returning from leave in Laos, 30-year-old Malcolm ‘Mac’ Riding was on board an Air
Vietnam DC4 when it crashed 25 km from his Red Cross team’s compound near Pleiku,
South Vietnam.
13 March 1956
New Zealand's first test cricket victory
New Zealand was already 3–0 down in the series going into the fourth and final test at Eden
Park in Auckland. Their West Indies opponents included household names such as Gary
Sobers and Everton Weekes, who broke batting records for a New Zealand season.
13 March 1956
New Zealand's first test cricket victory
New Zealand was already 3–0 down in the series going into the fourth and final test at Eden
Park in Auckland. Their West Indies opponents included household names such as Gary
Sobers and Everton Weekes, who broke batting records for a New Zealand season.
15 March 2019
51 killed in mosque shootings
New Zealand’s Muslim community suffered an horrific attack when a self-proclaimed ‘white
nationalist’ opened fire on worshippers at mosques on Deans Avenue and in Linwood in
Christchurch. Fifty were killed and another 50 wounded, one of whom died six weeks later.
15 March 1944
New Zealand forces capture Castle Hill at Cassino
On 15 March 1944, 6 New Zealand Brigade attacked the Italian town of Cassino as part of
the Allies’ advance on Rome.
18 March 1983
Waitangi Tribunal rules on Motunui claim
In a landmark ruling, the Waitangi Tribunal (see 10 October) found that the Crown’s
obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi included a duty to protect Māori fishing grounds.