New Delhi | Mumbai: India’s Covid-19 vaccine development is “on track” and the government is working to refine the “complex issue” of pricing, a top official said. The government’s expert group on vaccines met with executives of manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines on Monday and discussed timelines, infrastructure needs such as blood assay labs, production capacity and pricing, people aware of the matter told ET. The group led by Niti Aayog member VK Paul assessed India’s manufacturing capacity and the scale required to produce and roll out the vaccine for the country and other low- and middle-income nations at the earliest. Paul said two vaccines in India are in phase I/II trials and the third is entering phase III. “We are on track and are in dialogue with the manufacturers. We will have updates as time goes by. I can say that India has a huge potential and capacity,” Paul said. “We have requested the manufacturers to provide information on individual capacities, how they can ramp up, where they are today and the price that they are looking at. Vaccine pricing is a complex issue, it will get refined as we move along.” While the meeting had been scheduled with the top executives of Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila, Biological E and Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, the CEOs did not attend the meeting and sent their representatives.
Paul said the Covid-19 vaccine is the nation’s mission and micro-planning and detailing is under way.
