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* Government clears $610 mln grant to vaccine makers -finmin
* Vaccine demand soaring as COVID-19 spreads at record speed
(Recasts with India finance minister comment on grants)
By Aftab Ahmed
NEW DELHI, April 19 (Reuters) - India's government has
approved a 45.67-billion-rupee ($610 million) grant for COVID-19
vaccine makers Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech
to boost production capacity as infections spread at record
speed, its finance minister said.
Of the total, SII, the world's biggest maker of vaccines
including the AstraZeneca shot, will get 30 billion
rupees ($400 million), Nirmala Sitharaman told news channel
CNBC-TV18 on Monday.
The central government is struggling to meet demand from
many states for the vaccine amid an exponential increase in
coronavirus cases around the country of 1.3 billion people.
India has administered more than 112 million doses of the
AstraZeneca shot so far, the most in the world, despite concerns
about some people overseas developing blood clots after
receiving the vaccine.
SII sought the funds to increase its monthly capacity to
more than 100 million doses by the end of May, from up to 70
million currently.
"We are clear that we will give whatever support is
necessary to develop and boost the availability of vaccines in
the country," a government source said, declining to be named as
he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
Given the surge in domestic demand, any funding from the
government is unlikely to help alleviate a slump in vaccine
exports. India has delayed big shipments this month, exporting
only about 2 million doses compared with 64 million doses
between late January and March.
SII, which will soon also start making the Novavax
COVID-19 vaccine as well, did not respond to a Reuters request
for comment. Bharat Biotech did not immediately respond outside
business hours.
Since starting its immunisation campaign in mid-January,
India has injected a total of 123 million vaccine doses,
including nearly 11 million of a domestically developed shot
known as Covaxin.
The government is also trying to boost output of Covaxin and
has changed rules to fast-track imports of vaccines developed by
Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson
.
($1 = 74.8600 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Additional reporting by Krishna N.
Das; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
