New Delhi: ‘Smooth vaccine rollout is our duty and we will fulfill it’, India’s top two vaccine makers said on Tuesday.
Putting to end some misgivings on the rollout, they said it was their “combined intent” to develop, manufacture, and supply the COVID-19 vaccines for India and globally.
In a joint statement, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech Managing Director Dr. Krishna Ella said: “Both companies respect the great work being carried out by each other and put behind us the miscommunication and misunderstanding caused during the past week.
“We are fully aware of the importance of vaccines for people and countries alike, we hereby communicate our joint pledge to provide global access for our COVID-19 vaccines,” they added.
On Monday, Dr. Ella had, during a virtual conference, lashed out against those who had criticized the accelerated emergency use authorization (EUA) accorded to Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech. It was unfair to be at the receiving end of such backlash when they had taken up “200 percent honest clinical trials”.
Without naming anyone, he had also criticized companies that had branded their vaccine-like water. According to reports, Poonawalla had, in a TV interview, claimed that there were only three vaccines developed by pharmaceutical majors Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca with proven efficacy, and the rest were like ‘water’.
The Drug Controller-General of India (DCGI) had approved the two vaccines recently.
Some experts had also reportedly said that Covaxin could be used as a “back-up” as its Phase 3 trial on humans was yet to be completed.
Dr Ella had also asked why no one questioned the Oxford-AstraZeneca data. The data on Covaxin was published in at least five reputed journals. Covaxin was a vaccine and not a backup as suggested by some experts, he added.
Clearing the air, the two companies said on Tuesday that the more important task was saving the lives and livelihoods of populations in India and the world. “Vaccines are a global public health good and they have the power to save lives and accelerate the return to economic normalcy at the earliest,” their joint statement read.
“Now that two COVID-19 vaccines have been issued emergency use authorization (EUA) in India, the focus is on manufacture, supply, and distribution, such that populations that need it the most receive high quality, safe and efficacious vaccines.
“Both our companies are fully engaged in this activity and consider it our duty to the nation and the world at large to ensure a smooth rollout of vaccines. Each of our companies continues their COVID-19 vaccines development activities as planned,” Poonawalla and Dr. Ella said.
(VP)