Image Credits: Entertainment Weekly
Image Credits: Quartz
The CEO of the Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla appreciated the efforts made by the United States of America as well as India on successfully removing the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing restrictions that were previously in place. With the go-ahead, India can now increase vaccine production and sustain the struggle against the pandemic.
Adar Poonawalla put out a tweet thanking the US president, Joe Biden, and the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar for the policy change and that he hopes this change will increase the supply of raw materials in India, as well as globally in addition to boosting India’s vaccine production.
Thanks to the efforts of @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, & @DrSJaishankar, this policy change will hopefully increase the supply of raw materials globally and to India; boosting our vaccine production capacity and strengthening our united fight against this pandemic. https://t.co/bHADBwiUnm
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) June 4, 2021
The restriction was lifted after the Biden Administration withdrew the 1950 Defense Production Act priority ratings on AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Sanofi vaccines. This law made it so that American manufacturers would be the priority to receive the supplies that are needed. As the restriction is no more, American companies can now determine by themselves who they want to sell the vaccine to.
The Vice President of the US, Kamala Harris in conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 3 other world leaders on Thursday has notified them that the US will donate their surplus vaccines of 25 million doses around the world as they are confident of having sufficient vaccines for Americans.