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Serum unable to send 1 million doses of vaccine to Lanka
Sri Lanka will not be getting the expected balance of 1 million doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine from India’s Serum Institute in mid-March and April, the Sunday Times learns.
In a surprise letter dated March 3 to the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC), the Serum Institute has informed that vaccine manufacturing plans have met an “obstacle” which affects its ability to supply “you in the near future”. The letter was seen by the Sunday Times.
Sri Lanka has paid around US$ 5.25 a dose for 1.5 million doses, of which 500,000 doses were received in the last week of February for the community vaccination programme.
The balance 1 million doses were expected to be delivered to Sri Lanka in mid-March and April.
However, the Serum Institute has said that an “update” on the status of the supply of the vaccine would be given only in mid-April and alternatively it would support requests for cancellation and refund of the advances paid.
The Serum Institute letter signed by CEO Adar C. Poonawalla and sent to SPC Chairman Dr. Prasanna Gunasena says: “To support the global effort fighting the pandemic, SII (Serum Institute of India) had recently signed additional agreements with governments outside of the scope of its original sub-licence agreement with AstraZeneca. To meet these additional supply commitments, we commenced the expansion of our manufacturing facilities. Regrettably, a fire at one of our buildings has caused obstacles to the expansion of our monthly manufacturing output.
“…Under these circumstances supply to you cannot be guaranteed in the foreseeable months due to this force majeure.”
The Serum Institute has requested guidance from Sri Lanka on the “preferred course of action” – delayed vaccine arrivals (a schedule not known yet) or cancellation of the order and refund of the advance payments.
Sri Lanka was hoping to order around 10 million COVISHIELD vaccine doses from the Serum Institute.
The letter to the SPC came on Wednesday, while on Thursday both Serum Institute’s CEO Adar C. Poonawalla and Sri Lanka’s Vaccine Task Force Chief Lalith Weeratunga were on a Zoom discussion organised by the World Bank, where Mr. Weeratunga expressed concerns over the availability of vaccine stocks. The discussion was on ‘How South Asia can ensure fair, broad and fast access to safe vaccines for all its people’.
Meanwhile, 264,000 vaccine doses were due this weekend from the global vaccine initiative COVAX.
This week the independent Panel of Experts advising the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) on vaccines gave the nod for Russia’s Sputnik V, after studying the dossiers and the data and the NMRA granted permission for the emergency use of this vaccine on Friday.
The WHO is yet to grant emergency-use listing for Sputnik V. So far, only Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have got the WHO’s nod.
This was as the furore over the discarding of the priority list under which the elderly (over-60s) were to get the jab first under the community immunisation programme with limited vaccine dose availability continued. The Sunday Times learns that a request of the National Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases (NACCD) for an urgent meeting on the matter has fallen on deaf ears.
The NACCD is the highest technical committee which drew up the priority list which is now in the wastepaper basket.
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