Vaccine market beckons

An Atmanirbhar Bharat needs substantial public investment in R&D grants to biotech firms and research labs

At a time when vaccine alone offers hope to end the coronavirus pandemic, India is caught in a paradoxical situation. Despite being a world leader in vaccine manufacturing, it lags in vaccine research and development. While there are six Indian companies in the global race for a vaccine, the current front runners, however, are biotech players from China, United States and European companies. India must accelerate efforts to develop an indigenous vaccine so that it can be geared up to manufacture sufficient doses to meet domestic requirements first and then export large volumes to other countries. While the Western countries and China are pouring billions of dollars into fast-tracking development of vaccines, India’s investment is minuscule in comparison. An Atmanirbhar Bharat needs substantial public investment in research and development grants to both private biotech firms and government-owned research laboratories. Historically, India’s R&D efforts in basic science get caught in a bureaucratic maze. To safeguard the geopolitical interests in the global vaccine market, India needs to up its game and create an ecosystem where it can play a big role both in R&D and manufacturing of vaccines. As pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the world are virtually racing against time to come up with an effective vaccine, the reality is that whoever crosses the finishing line first will have a great advantage in the competitive market. India cannot afford to be left behind in the race.

During the recent World Health Assembly, organised by the WHO, China, European Union and a number of other countries, including India, proposed a resolution seeking to create a patent pool and relax intellectual property issues to enable universal, timely and equitable access to and fair distribution of all affordable essential health technologies. This is important in the context of wide disparity in the capabilities of nations in handling the health crisis. While universal and affordable access is highly desirable, it is inevitable that supply will, at least initially, be much lower than the demand and the market forces are bound to kick in. As of now, the optimistic estimate is that the vaccine could be available in the market before the end of this year as nearly 100 research groups across the world are engaged in the mission at a breakneck speed, with some of them in the advanced stage of clinical trials. India has a huge opportunity to emerge as a global manufacturing hub for Covid-19 vaccine. Pune-based Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has partnered with Oxford University for a promising under-trial vaccine and plans to have the vials ready for use by September-October. India has the wherewithal and infrastructure to meet the global vaccine demand.

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