1888 New Delhi, June 3 India on Thursday placed its first advance order of 300 million doses of an unapproved, yet to be licensed, Covid-19 vaccine being produced by Hyderabad-based Biological E. The Union Health Ministry announced that it had finalised arrangements with Biological-E to reserve 30 crore vaccine doses. Rectifying mistake of not ordering in initial phases The advance order for an unapproved vaccine shows that the government wants to set its vaccine strategy on course It is now facing crunch as it has made the mistake of not pre-booking various vaccine candidates in advanced stages of development “These vaccine doses will be manufactured and stockpiled by Biological-E from August to December 2021. For this purpose, the Union Ministry of Health would be making an advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore to Biological-E,” the government said a day after the Supreme Court questioned its weak vaccine policy that had left several people uncovered and in the lurch.