US assures Export of Vaccine Raw Material. Earlier this year, when the Biden Administration came to power New Delhi and Washington renewed their commitments as promised in the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, to work together and “coordinate multilateral action to address COVID-19” situation across the globe. US assures Export of Vaccine Raw Material.
Also, a recent statement by the National Security Council confirms that the USA shall be working in close collaboration with India “around the clock” to assist in the arrest of the second wave of pandemic looming in the country. US assures Export of Vaccine Raw Material.
Read these articles also
India in final stages of clearing National Cyber Security Strategy
India China Managing the Peaceful rise
Rise of Naya Kashmir: A Dream becoming Reality
India’s Defence Budget 2021: Key Highlights and Way Forward
India-US Relation: Future Challenges for Biden Administration
The ‘Tejas’ Way: HAL Bags Mega Contract in Indian Defence Industry
LONG STANDING PARTNERSHIP
As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Security Advisor Mr. Ajit Doval spoke on the phone to reaffirm the USA’s commitment to building a long-standing partnership between Washington and New Delhi.
It is said that the move by the USA comes after deliberate pressure on the Biden administration from the Indian diaspora living abroad and through the influence of lobbying via the means of think tanks. The think tanks played a crucial role alongside the government to make sure that there is maintenance of a “sustainable public health supply chain” and essential specific raw materials available to India.
It must be noted that this pandemic is turning out to be a litmus test for countries and partnerships across the world.
The mass appeal for India started after the large-scale public health crisis badly hit India, the country is going through a casualty rate of 2k lives each day. The state machinery has been mobilizing the best of their abilities to control the surge of covid but public and private health care facilities are struggling to even provide basic necessity support to patients. The only option to arrest this crisis would be to start the vaccination drive phase 3 for those over the age of 18 to get vaccinated, which was given a green signal by the government and the registration process starts from 28th April 2021.
INDIAN CAPABILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
India has been known to have the capability and the infrastructure to produce vaccination at large, New Delhi has been instrumental in delivering a total of 66.2 Million vaccine doses to date across the world even after strong criticism against it. The ‘vaccine diplomacy’ initiated by India has been heavily criticized by pharmaceutical companies who sold the same vaccine. India and South Africa petitioned the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive the intellectual property on Covid Vaccines. It is indicative of the approach of countries such as the US, the UK, the EU, Japan, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland who stood against this petition because they represented a major contribution to expanding the production of vaccines across the world.
To get a hold on of this crisis, New Delhi needs to urgently accelerate its vaccination drive, as early and as fast as possible. The South Asian country is well known among its partners and allies to have distributed a total of 66.2 Million vaccines till this date to various countries across the world, so, to turn the table against this fast-moving disease, vaccination is the key for India.
In the month of April 2020, the Biden Administration invoked the US Defence Production Act of 1950, a law which granted an embargo on all the supplies and equipment to prioritize the supply of “critical” materials and goods which ramp up the domestic production of their own. This act ensures that during the time of national emergency, this “protectionist policy” would prioritize their domestic industry overall, thus, these essential products are allowed for particular vaccine manufacturing. Moreover, the Biden Administration pushed for these reforms to ensure that “every life be saved”, maintenance of a “sustainable public health supply chain”.
While the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) shall be funding a substantial expansion of manufacturing capability for BioE, the vaccine manufacturer in India, enabling BioE to ramp up to produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022. Additionally, the United States is deploying an expert team of public health advisors from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID which will work in close collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, India’s health ministries, and India’s Epidemic Intelligence Service staff.
INDIAN VACCINE STRATEGY FOR COVID-19
In India, at this point of time, three vaccines are being approved for domestic use, notably – Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine is manufactured by SII (Serum Institute of India), Covaxin, made by the Bharath Biotech which is developed in collaboration with ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the third latest addition is the Sputnik V – by Russia, along with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory. The vaccine which is yet to debut in the Indian market is the Covovax, which is being developed by Serum Institute along with the global biotechnology company Novavax, which have been reserved for the domestic market in the United States and all set to make a debut in the Indian markets soon.
Moreover, there has been a strong voice in the USA – such as Democratic primary candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — had asked Mr. Biden to support a waiver of intellectual property rights to facilitate the production of COVID-19 therapeutics globally, but that is still under consideration by the administration. One cannot forget that big pharmaceutical companies in the USA have a lot of pull in the American Policymaking over the years, New Delhi’s vaccine diplomacy only hurts the profitability which companies aim to get out of the crisis and recover the money they have spent on the Research and Development for the vaccines.
China, on the other hand, even with their recently strained bilateral relations on matters related to border issues, offered to help New Delhi in times of crisis, but there is still a reluctance to accept help from this adversary. Taking a different route India has imported oxygen from the Gulf and Singapore to tackle the Covid situation at home.
In the age of multilateralism, it is clear that the QUAD initiative shall stand for each other and so will India’s commitment to the grouping in the Indo-Pacific and the global liberal order.