India’s ban on vaccine exports likely factored into President Joe Biden’s decision this week to ship an additional 20 million COVID-19 vaccines overseas.
By mid-March, vaccine facilities in India had produced over 60 million doses shipped worldwide. But the Indian government began restricting those exports as the coronavirus surged in India in late March. With new COVID-19 cases averaging over 250,000 a day and deaths averaging over 4,200, Indian officials said the ban on vaccine exports may last until October.
The ban has greatly affected COVAX, the international effort to supply vaccines to poorer nations. India’s Serum Institute, which produces the AstraZeneca vaccine, was supposed to be a key part of COVAX. Without those AstraZeneca vaccines, COVAX is roughly 150 million doses short.
The Biden administration has faced increasing pressure to distribute more vaccines abroad. Biden disappointed Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in March by declining to donate vaccines from the United States. By May, as the crisis in India worsened, the pressure increased. French President Emmanuel Macron urged Biden “to end the ban on exports of vaccines and on components of vaccines that prevent their production.” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of Serum Institute of India, expressed similar sentiments on Twitter.
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Technically, the U.S. does not have a ban on exporting COVID-19 vaccines. However, Biden did invoke the Defense Production Act in January which ensures materials for vaccines fill orders in the U.S. first.
Biden pledged to donate 60 million vaccines to other countries in April. However, that made little difference for the U.S. because those were AstraZeneca vaccines, which the Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized for use in the U.S. The additional 20 million doses will come from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson which are approved in the U.S.
The total 80 million doses are expected to be shipped overseas by June. But for many countries affected by the India ban, more doses can’t come soon enough.
Authorities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka said their nations are close to running out of vaccines. All three countries had deals with the Serum Institute to purchase the AstraZeneca shot.
Many African countries have administered all the AstraZenca doses they received. The export ban has left many people without the second dose.
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“Health officials have had to very quickly keep on adjusting their vaccination plans. It’s not clear when the second batch of vaccine is going to come,” Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, told DW News.