The Indo-Pacific Quad alliance has drawn up a clear action plan to accelerate the production of Covid-19 vaccines with India as the world’s vaccine manufacturing hub and the US and Japan providing the financial backing while Australia will be pitching in as well to tackle the acute shortage of vaccines worldwide.
In a joint statement, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have agreed to set up a Quad Vaccine Experts Group, comprising top scientists and government officials of the four countries to implement the decisions.
The joint statement issued by the White House after the Quad summit states that the United States Development Finance Corporation, will work with India’s Biological E Ltd to "finance increased capacity to support Biological E’s effort to produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 with Stringent Regulatory Authorization and/or World Health Organization Emergency Use Listing, including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”
Biological E managing director Mahima Datla had said recently that the company was “targeting the production of 600 million doses for Jonson & Johnson. This will be in addition to our own product for which we are targeting approximately 1 billion doses.”
The timeline for starting the production in India of the single-shot J&J vaccine which has been recently cleared for use in the US and Europe was not clear as Indian rules require bridging trials in the country before the manufacturing can start.
However, now the process will get expedited as the post-summit statement says: “Quad partners are working collaboratively to achieve expanded manufacturing of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines at facilities in India, prioritizing increased capacity for vaccines authorized by Stringent Regulatory Authorities.”
The statement’s mention of “including the J&J vaccine” implies that this will be only one of the vaccines to be financed. Biological E’s own vaccine candidate is being developed with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and US-based Dynavax Technologies Corp which is undergoing clinical trials in India, with late-stage testing due to begin in April. A top US scientist had recently lauded the effort for developing this vaccine candidate.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) had also recently agreed to an initial contribution of up to $5 million to Hyderabad-based Biological E towards the cost of scaling up the process of vaccine manufacturing. Interestingly the summit also mentions CEPI as one of the multilateral institutions that will be relied upon to push ahead with the production and distribution of Covid vaccines.
India has rolled out its vaccination campaign against the pandemic with two vaccines, Oxford's Covishield being manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's Covaxin with a target of inoculating 300 million people by August this year. These have also been gifted to neighbouring countries.
The other vaccines that are expected to be launched in India include Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCov-D and a Novavax product also to be produced by Serum Institute.
Japan to bankroll effort
The Quad statement points out that Japan, through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is in discussions to provide concessional yen loans for the Government of India to expand manufacturing for Covid-19 vaccines for export, with a priority on producing vaccines that have received authorization from WHO Emergency Use Listing or Stringent Regulatory Authorities.
Japan will also assist vaccination programs of developing countries such as the purchase of vaccines and cold-chain support including through provision of grant aid of $41 million and new concessional yen loans, ensuring alignment with and support of WHO-led COVAX.
Australia to chip in
Australia will contribute US$77 million for the provision of vaccines and “last-mile” delivery support with a focus on Southeast Asia, in addition to its existing commitment of US$407 million for regional vaccine access and health security which will provide full vaccine coverage to nine Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste.
WHO bounces back after Trump blues
The Joe Biden administration has also in a complete break from Donald Trump’s hostile stand against the WHO, decided as part of the Quad alliance to support the multilateral health body in providing vaccines to poor countries which are struggling to secure supplies. US President Donald Trump had gone to the extent of saying he would halt funding to the WHO because it had "failed in its basic duty" in its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
According to the joint statement, Quad partners will ensure expanded manufacturing will be exported for global benefit, to be procured through key multilateral initiatives, such as WHO’s COVAX, that provide life-saving vaccines for low-income countries, and by countries in need.
Quad partners will also cooperate to strengthen “last-mile” vaccination, building on existing health-security and development programs, and across our governments to coordinate and strengthen our programs in the Indo-Pacific.
The United States will leverage existing programs to further boost vaccination capability, drawing on at least $100 million in regional efforts focused on immunization.
