The approval of India’s indigenous Covaxin for emergency use listing by World Health Organisation (WHO) is heartening news and indeed a shot in the arm for the Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech. People in India and elsewhere who were given Covaxin under the national immunology programme were apprehensive of some uncertainty about the efficacy of this Covid vaccine. It implies that travellers from India who had received Covaxin faced the risk of being quarantined in the country of their visit. The development is also a rebuttal to those who have been hell-bent in propagating against the Indigenous vaccine for political and other reasons. For doubts and for fear of such an eventuality, many in India chose Covishield and Sputnik V over Covaxin. It is, therefore, good news especially for those who have been planning to travel outside the country.
Many health experts feel that with the arrival of Covaxin on the world vaccine regime, the availability of one more vaccine to fight Covid-19 would be an additional tool for safeguarding the people from the Covid-19 spread. Obtaining WHO’s EUL is a prerequisite for a vaccine to be supplied through COVAX, the global Covid vaccine equity scheme. The approval also means that the vaccine has cleared all the tests and is as effective as any other vaccine. That it is an indigenously-developed vaccine makes it a matter of pride for India. There are tens of millions of people the world over who have not yet received even one shot of vaccine either because of its non-availability or because of its steep price.
It can be safely claimed that India is now in a position to meet the growing need of vaccines in the international market. Indian medicines are traditionally cheaper than the medicines produced by multinational companies. The same would be true about Covaxin too. In India also, Covaxin will get greater acceptance. The government has been boasting about India crossing the one-billion shot mark. Even today, only less than 30 per cent of the targeted population in India has been given the double shots necessary for full immunisation.
In other words, there is a huge domestic market for Covaxin. Those who intend to go abroad for work or studies will also patronise the vaccine. If vaccine manufacturers are ready to invest in research and development to make the vaccine ready for other variants of Covid-19 and for use in children, India could even become the vaccine hub of the world.
