Controversial homegrown vaccine risks derailing India’s rollout By Chris Kay, Bloomberg News
Published: February 7, 2021, 1:09pm
Share: A health worker inoculates police personnel with the COVID-19 vaccine at a civil hospital in Ahmedabad, India, on January 31, 2021. ( Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
A year ago, Krishna Ella was simply known for running a small Indian pharmaceutical company with a reputation for scientific rigor. Then came the pandemic that put the scientist and his family at the center of one of the world’s loudest furors over a coronavirus vaccine.
In June last year, India’s drug regulator permitted Ella’s firm Bharat Biotech International Ltd. to develop a homegrown vaccine in record time. Since then the company has been buffeted by controversies ranging from unrealistic government schedules to sporadic reports of adverse reactions. Matters came to a head last month after the government approved its shot before the complet
Moderna offers Covid-19 vaccines to South Africa: report
Bloomberg3 February 2021
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Moderna Inc. offered to supply its coronavirus vaccine to South Africa, in what would be its first deal to sell shots to an African nation, a person familiar with the talks said.
Discussions have started, though no deal has been concluded, the person said, asking not to be identified because a public announcement hasn’t been made.
Business Day newspaper earlier reported that Moderna offered to sell South Africa 20 million doses, with the first arriving in May, citing a health activist from a group called the C19 People’s Coalition.
Medical drone startup to begin covid vaccine delivery in April
Ira Boudway, Bloomberg
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Vials of Covishield, the local name for the covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, move along a conveyor on the production line at the Serum Institute of India Ltd. Hadaspar plant in Pune, Maharashtra, India, on Jan. 22, 2021.Bloomberg photo by Dhiraj Singh.
Zipline Inc., a drone delivery service that specializes in medical supplies, announced Thursday that it plans to begin transporting covid-19 vaccines in April.
The South San Francisco-based startup said in a release that it is partnering with a leading manufacturer of covid-19 vaccines in all of the markets where its drones currently operate. Zipline has been delivering medicine and supplies to rural clinics in Rwanda and Ghana since 2016 and, last year, began delivering personal protective equipment to hospitals and clinics in North Carolina. It plans to add operations in Nigeria lat
Controversy Swirls Around India’s Homegrown Covid Vaccine Bloomberg 2/3/2021
(Bloomberg)
A year ago, Krishna Ella was simply known for running a small Indian pharmaceutical company with a reputation for scientific rigor. Then came the pandemic that put the scientist and his family at the center of one of the world’s loudest furors over a coronavirus vaccine.
In June last year, India’s drug regulator permitted Ella’s firm Bharat Biotech International Ltd. to develop a homegrown vaccine in record time. Since then the company has been buffeted by controversies ranging from unrealistic government schedules to sporadic reports of adverse reactions. Matters came to a head last month after the government approved its shot before the completion of final human trials.
From the U.S. to the Norway, vociferous debates over the efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines have beset pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc and governments the world over are battling anti-vaccine sentiment. Yet, experts say India never registered significant resistance to inoculations until now. The stakes are particularly high because the South Asian country is racing to inoculate 1.3 billion people across villages and crowded slums while grappling with the world’s second highest number of infections.
“There are many unanswered questions because of the total opaqueness and lack of accountability,” said Dinesh Thakur, a former pharmaceuticalexecutive known for exposing fraud at the Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. “One thing is abundantly clear: They have successfully now created a significant anti-vaccine movement in India.”