Top Virologist Says India “Late To The Table” In Buying Vaccines

Dr Gagandeep Kang said India delayed the process of bulk-buying vaccines unlike several other nations and may now have few options available.

Dr Gagandeep Kang, a top virologist who is also a member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on medical oxygen, said India delayed the process of bulk-buying vaccines unlike several other nations and may now have few options available in the international market.

“Aren’t we a little late to the table on this one?” Dr Kang said.

“The rest of the world has been buying vaccines at risk for a year, so what’s the supply that is available in the market for us to go now and say we want to buy vaccines?” she said.

The comments by the top Virologist come at a time when several states – including Maharashtra, Odisha, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh – have floated global tenders to procure vaccine doses, in an attempt to fight the pandemic while domestically produced vaccines are short in supply. In many states, vaccine centres have shut down amid a dwindling supply.

“If you can go to Zydus Cadila, Biological E, all the companies that are making vaccines which will be ready in the latter part of this year, tell them, ‘Ramp up your production, make as much as you can. If your trials are successful, we’ll take everything that you’ve got’. I think we’ll get more doses that way,” she said.

Dr Kang, the first Indian woman to become a Fellow of the Royal Society, when asked whether the government needed to make these investments despite the possibility of financial losses in the event a vaccine could not be fully developed, said: “I definitely think we should be taking that risk and if we do, it sets us up well for the future as well because you establish a precedent where you will be willing to invest in innovation knowing that innovations cannot always succeed.”