Jaishankar in US, vaccine companies ask him to raise raw material issue there

India’s vaccine makers have asked foreign minister S Jaishankar to request the Joe Biden administration in the US to ease rules that prevent exports to India of materials used in the manufacturing of vaccines.

Jaishankar is currently in the US to discuss cooperation over tackling Covid-19 with American officials. Supply of Covid-19 vaccines and vaccine raw materials is expected to be part of the talks.

Executives from Indian vaccine companies told ET that one of the demands that they had made to the government was to request Washington DC to ease the restrictions under the Defense Production Act, which had held up several key raw materials for them.


Indian companies are facing a shortage of materials such as single-use bags, purification resins and instruments for manufacturing like filling machines and lyophilisation machines. “The meeting with US officials will delve into securing these materials for manufacturing,” said an executive from a vaccine company.

A few companies whose vaccine candidates are under development have started reaching out directly to US suppliers to secure these key raw materials, ET has learnt.

Besides the raw material issue, India would also be making an appeal to the US to share AstraZeneca vaccine doses with India.

New Delhi hopes to get a large chunk of the 60 million doses the Biden administration has promised to share globally.

Getting that could help India partly ease a shortage of vaccines in the country.

Earlier this year, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of Serum Institute of India, had appealed to the US to free up supplies of the raw materials that the company required for manufacturing the Novavax vaccine.

Most of these materials have been cornered by US drug makers to meet their vaccine production commitments.

In April, the Joe Biden administration, in an attempt to help India tackle the Covid-19 crisis, offered to send aid in the form of oxygen concentrators, critical drugs such as remdesivir and also said it was redirecting its own order of AstraZeneca manufacturing supplies to India.