NEW DELHI: India — known as ‘the pharmacy of the world’ — has again emerged as a major supplier of Covid-19 vaccines, even as it itself is running the world’s largest vaccination drive and has inoculated more than 80 lakh people till Saturday.
Exports of the Covid-19 vaccine from India stood at around Rs 338 crore till February 8 amid rising demand for both Covishield and Covaxin, while other global vaccine candidates face challenges in terms of high pricing as well as storage related logistic issues.
Apart from the vaccine doses gifted by India to friendly countries, exports include commercial shipments.
However, this has not impacted India’s own vaccination programme.
Till about first week of February, Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) had shipped 3 crore doses of Covishield. Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is also likely to be exported to countries like Brazil and the UAE soon.
