Gavi seeks clarity as India eyes resuming export of COVID-19 jabs

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, aims to engage with the Serum Institute of India and the Indian government following local media reports that COVID-19 vaccine exports from the country will resume in October.

“We welcome news reports that India is to resume exports of COVID-19 vaccines to the rest of the world. This could have an immense positive impact on both health security within India as well as globally,” a Gavi spokesperson told Devex.

“Our priority right now is to engage with the government of India and Serum Institute of India to understand the impact this will have on our supply schedule, as we race to protect as many vulnerable people as we can from COVID-19,” the spokesperson added.

SII was a major supplier of COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVAX, the global vaccine procurement mechanism established to ensure global access to COVID-19 vaccine doses. It is co-led by Gavi, the World Health Organization, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

But in March, the Indian government halted exports of Covishield, the brand name for the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the institute, to prioritize domestic vaccinations as the country battled a deadly second wave of COVID-19.

That pause had a significant impact on COVAX, which experienced a significant supply shortfall in COVID-19 vaccine doses, and on the countries relying on those doses. The export restriction was among the reasons for COVAX’s reduced supply forecast for the year.

Devex has reached out to SII regarding the news but was told the company has no immediate comment. However, during a press conference last week, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla talked about the export restrictions potentially easing in “the next month or two.”

“I don't want to venture a guess, but it will happen very soon, only for the fact and the reason that if you look at how many vaccines we have delivered and others in India have delivered, we are coming very close to a point where there is more than enough vaccine stock, especially with us now scaling up even further for this year,” he said, while cautioning that the decision rests with the Indian government.

“We will go by what they [the government] feel is appropriate because they have to balance the needs and stockpiling of the vaccines for India in case of third waves and fourth waves. So … taking the lessons from what we learned in the second wave, which hit India badly, we don't want to be in that situation again. And that is where the Indian government, rightly so, is being very cautious … in managing the vaccine stocks,” he said.