India will begin exporting locally-made coronavirus vaccines within a fortnight of their launch, a foreign ministry official said. In the wake of a controversy after it was reported that Serum Institute of India has been barred to export vaccines to other countries, India's health ministry on Tuesday clarified that no such decision was taken ever. On Tuesday, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla too clarified that there was no ban on the exports of vaccine.
“The Union government has not banned the export of any of the Covid-19 vaccines. This should be absolutely clear. When I say Union government, I mean ministry of health and family welfare, ministry of commerce, the department for promotion of industry and internal trade, directorate general of foreign trade. These are the departments which can ban the export of vaccines in any hypothetical situation. They have not taken any action regarding this. So, this is my earnest request to media friends that we should be on guard when such misinformation is spread,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.
Exports allowed to all countries
Referring to the joint statement issued by the companies - Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech - which have got restricted, emergency-use approval, the secretary said, “Among other things, the statement said vaccines are a global public health good and that the companies are considering it as their duty to the nation and the world at large. So what does it mean? It means that neither the government and nor the vaccine makers are talking about any ban.”
Some news agency has recently quoted Poonawalla as saying that the government has asked the world’s largest vaccine maker to not export vaccines to any other country. Serum Institute has earlier agreed to supply millions of doses of vaccines to Bangladesh, global vaccine alliance Gavi etc. Hence, the report led to confusions as Prime Minister Narendra Modi too reiterated that India’s ‘Make in India’ pledge has to translate to ‘Make for the world’. On vaccine too, specifically the prime minister had earlier said that India will be ready to supply vaccines to other countries.
On Tuesday, both Adar Poonawalla and the health ministry clarified that there was no such ban. The official dismissed reports that India would ban exports of vaccines it is producing to meet local demand. India makes about 60% of vaccines globally and many countries are eagerly waiting for it to begin shipping doses. "Within a fortnight of the rollout of the vaccines we will allow exports to some of our South Asian neighbours. Some of these exports will be paid by us as gifts, and the others will be supplied at roughly the same price the government will be buying the vaccines at," the foreign ministry official, who preferred to remain unnamed, said.
