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NATION                                                                     MARCH 12, 2021  |      The Indian Eye                          10





               can us defense Production act





            badly affect vaccine production by




                                              serum institute?





           Politicians and celebrities takes Covid-19 shots as vaccination


                                              drives picks speed across India






        Our Bureau

        New Delhi

              erum Institute of India
              (SII),  the  world’s  largest
        Svaccine manufacturer by
        volume, has sought the central
        government’s intervention so as
        to enable the firm import essen-
        tial raw materials from the US
        for uninterrupted manufactur-
        ing and supply of Covid-19 vac-
        cines.
            In a letter to commerce sec-
        retary Anup Wadhawan and for-
        eign secretary Harsh Vardhan
        Shringla,  director, government
        and regulatory affairs at Pune-
        based SII, Prakash Kumar Singh
        said the US government has in-
        voked the Defense Production
        Act  because  of  which  the  firm
        is  facing  difficulties  in  import-
        ing necessary products like cell                         COVID19 vaccination doses made by the Serum Institute of India (ANI)
        culture  medias,  raw  material,
        single-use tubing assemblies and     ly from the US.                     facilitate expedited delivery in  shortage of Covid-19 vaccines as
        some specialty chemicals from           “Through the Defense Pro- promotion of the US, national  their manufacture depends on
        the US.                              duction Act, the US government  defense,” he said in the letter.         uninterrupted supply of these
            He said in the letter that Cov-  has  established  two  prioritiz-       This essentially means that if  raw materials, consumables and
        ishield vaccine manufactured by      ing systems, defense priorities  the orders from US manufactur- components etc,” Singh said in
        the SII is being widely used in In-  and allocations system program  ers are rated/prioritized under  the letter dated March 6.
        dia and across the globe and mil-    (DPAS) and health resources  the above-mentioned systems                     “I  humbly  request  for  your
        lions of people have been vacci-     priority and allocations system  they take precedence over or- kind intervention to resolve this
        nated with it. Singh further said    (HRPAS). The HRPAS has two  ders of manufacturers of other  matter in larger public interest.
        the  Serum  Institute  is  working   principal components i.e. prior- countries, Singh stated.                This  will  enable  us  to  import
        on many other Covid-19 vaccine       ities and allocations. Under the        He  said  the  whole  world  is  these essential products soon
        projects in technical collabora-     priority component, certain con- depending on mass manufac- from the US for uninterrupted
        tion with various Institutions i.e.   tracts  between  the  government  turing of Covid-19 vaccine at an  manufacturing and supply of
        Novavax (US), Codagenix (US)         and  private  parties  or  between  uninterrupted speed and scale  Covid-19 Vaccines in India and
        etc. for which it depends on im-     private parties for the produc- to end the pandemic. “But if  globally,” he said.
        port of many necessary products      tion or delivery of industrial  we  cannot  get  timely  supplies            Meanwhile,  the  vaccination
        like raw materials, consumables      resources  required  to  produce  of these essential products from  drive in India is going on at full
        and components from various          Covid-19  vaccine  will  be  given  the US, it is going to be a serious  steam, with elderly people queu-
        foreign manufacturers, especial-     priority over other contracts to  limiting factor resulting in acute        Continued on next page... >>


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