Ficci demands PLI-like scheme for vaccine makers, clinical trial waiver for foreign jabs

Representative Image. Health workers at the tiny village of Bahakajari along the Brahmaputra River in Assam preparing to vaccinate the nearly 9,000 residents. (Image: AP)

Industry body Ficci has asked the government to extend financial help to vaccine makers like it does under the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to ramp up production as new coronavirus cases continue to surge at a furious pace in the country.

The industry body also suggested that foreign vaccines already in use in other countries be quickly approved for emergency use and strenuous domestic clinical trials be waived. Several states have complained of vaccine shortage in recent days as they struggle to check the spread of the virus.

"There is an urgent and critical need to encourage vaccine manufacturers to substantially augment their capacities for production. Since the cost of vaccines has been capped by the government, the vaccine manufacturers need to be provided with appropriate incentives for ramping up the production," Ficci said on April 13.

The demand comes a day after the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.  The Russian vaccine is the third to have been granted emergency use authorisation in the country after Covishield, developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

India has been hit hard by the new wave of coronavirus with infections growing at a much fast clip than the last time. The country added 1,61,736 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry’s April 13 update shows. This the seventh straight day that the cases have topped one lakh.

"This should be considered for import and sale of international vaccines as well as initiate manufacturing of such vaccines in the country. Given that most of these vaccines have extensive dossier and data on their safety and efficacy for large populations, including for Indians living abroad, we should waive off the need for Indian clinical trial data," the chamber said.

Severe shortage 

The industry body also said many states continue to face a vaccine shortage including Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, forcing state governments to scale down their daily vaccination targets. The Centre has repeatedly said there is no shortage of vaccines.

"India intends to vaccinate a priority population of 30 crore by August 2021. Given that 10.85 crore people have received at least first dose of COVID vaccination and going with the current rate of 30 lakh vaccinations per day, we would need more than 38 crore doses (of two-dose vaccines) to fully vaccinate this priority group," the industry body said. It added that reports showed the government had only 2.04 crore doses in the pipeline for the next few days.

Since the duration of immunity provided by the vaccines was yet not known, the government would need to factor in repeat vaccination and maintain the momentum of manufacturing for at least the next couple of years, Ficci said.

With the current strategy and vaccination rate, India would miss vaccinating "super-spreaders" in the 18-45 year age bracket, it said, adding the group also constituted the majority of the workforce needed to sustain economic activities.

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