NEW DELHI, March 5 (Reuters) - A temporary U.S. ban on
exports of critical raw materials could limit the production of
coronavirus vaccines by companies such as the Serum Institute of
India (SII), its chief executive said in a World Bank panel
discussion https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2020/12/14/7th-south-asia-economic-policy-network-conference-on-vaccinating-south-asia
on Thursday.
SII, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has licensed the
AstraZeneca/Oxford University product and will soon
start bulk-manufacturing the Novavax shot.
"There are a lot of bags, filters and critical items that
manufacturers need," Adar Poonawalla said. "The Novavax vaccine,
which we are a major manufacturer of, needs these items from the
U.S."
He said the recent invocation of the U.S. Defence Production
Act to preserve vaccine raw materials for its own companies went
against the global goal of sharing vaccines equitably.
The White House said this week it had used the act to help
drugmaker Merck & Co produce Johnson & Johnson’s
COVID-19 vaccine.
"This really needs to be looked at because if they are
talking about building capacity all over the world, the sharing
of these critical raw materials, which just can't be replaced in
a matter of six months or a year, is going to become a critical
limiting factor," Poonawalla said.
India's Biological E has tied up with J&J to potentially
contract manufacture up to 600 million doses of its vaccine per
year. They have signed an initial deal but production volumes
have not been agreed upon.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das and Arghyadeep Dutta; editing by
Jason Neely)
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