Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Exclusive: EU seeks 10 million AstraZeneca vaccines from India to meet shortfall - Indian source

Published 04/01/2021, 08:55 AM
Updated 04/01/2021, 09:00 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A health official draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, at Infectious Diseases Hospital in Colombo

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A health official draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, at Infectious Diseases Hospital in Colombo

By Neha Arora

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The European Union has asked India to allow it to buy 10 million doses of AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)'s COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India, a government official told Reuters, the latest sign of growing pressure on Delhi to export more of its production to other countries.

The EU wants the doses from Serum, the world's largest vaccine maker, to offset supply shortfalls from AstraZeneca's European plants and speed up the bloc's vaccine roll-out.

Any quick approval of the EU request is unlikely, however, with India scrambling to expand its own domestic vaccination drive, said the Indian government official, who asked not to be named as the discussions are private.

Britain is also pressuring India to export the second half of 10 million doses it had ordered from Serum, the source said.

Serum was originally supposed to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine only for low and medium-income countries.

"The EU ambassador wrote a letter, saying, please give us (export) approvals," said the source, adding the letter was sent around two weeks ago.

Serum, AstraZeneca and India's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the EU Commission said the Commission had no immediate comment.

India, however, has said that it is now focused on expanding its own immunisation drive as COVID-19 cases have surged since March.

Its decision to focus on its domestic needs, which came after the government was criticised at home for shipping tens of millions of doses overseas, will also affect the WHO-backed global network for vaccine distribution, known as COVAX. The network aims to secure COVID-19 vaccines primarily for dozens of poorer nations.

Production glitches have slowed vaccinations for the 450 million people in the 27-nation EU. The bloc's per capita immunisation lags that of countries such as Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the website Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations.

India has so far exported 64 million vaccine doses to 83 countries, and administered the same number of doses at home. Its inoculation drive expanded from Thursday to include everyone above the age of 45, which is expected to raise vaccine demand substantially.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A health official draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, at Infectious Diseases Hospital in Colombo

India has reported 12.22 million cases of the coronavirus, the third highest number globally after the United States and Brazil. It has recorded nearly 163,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Latest comments

I’m glad President Trump ordered ours back in July.
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.