Astra Zeneca has sent legal notice to Serum Institute over vaccine supply delays

Astra Zeneca has sent a legal notice to Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing its vaccine,  over vaccine supply delays, according to its CEO Adar Poonawalla, who said “ We are examining all avenues to resolve legal disputes over contractual obligations that Serum Institute is not able to fulfill due to its prioritisation of  Indian supplies, Serum has so far exported 60m doses and provided 70m doses every month to India since it began production early this year. In January the firm was aiming to boost production to 100 million doses a month. This week we are still short of being able to supply to every Indian,  and would not be able to meet the target before the end of June because of the time taken to repair damages from a fire at its facilities in Pune in January. Due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such eventualities and contingencies. A squeeze on finances is also hampering the drive to ramp up production  ”.

Mr. Poonawala is seeking £ 290m ($400m) in government assistance or bank finance to invest in expanding capacity. The serum is selling a dose of the vaccine at $2 to India’s government and “ this rate is not enough to sustain further expansion”. Clearly, India’s vaccine shortage will have a worldwide impact. Last month India placed a temporary hold on all exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Serums say it shipped 30 million doses to Covax in January and February half of its capacity and bow there’s a shortfall of 30-40million export doses.”

Experts say the vaccine shortages in parts of India could be because of supply bottlenecks. Vaccine makers had also possibly oversold their capacities while taking orders from all over the world. “ As the cases rise and vaccine hesitancy falls, the demand for doses will increase.  We have to plan better.”

A new vaccine possibly Sputnik V is expected to be approved by June. Covovaz another coronavirus vaccine being developed by Serum Institute in partnership with American vaccine developer  Novavax is not expected to available before September.

So India has to prioritise jabs to bring down the number of people dying of Covid-19 than to speedily provide shots to more than a 120million of India’s elderly, to be done in the next few weeks, with the help from local governments, civil society, including religious leaders and backed by focused campaigns.

Serum Institute of India, which makes the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine, known locally as Covishield, is the powerhouse and makes 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines and is home to half a dozen major manufacturers, including Serum Institute of India- the largest in the world. But a large-scale adult vaccination program against a virulent pathogen like SARA-Cov2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is posing unprecedented challenges.

India, 1.38bn,  has administered 90m doses of vaccines so far. 

More than 31 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, part of the biggest inoculation progamme the country has ever launched, although the vaccine supply issue has continued to make the rollout bumpy,