As India witnesses a surge in Covid 19 cases, there is need to work on a mission mode to ramp up manufacturing and supply of vaccines, industry body Ficci said. Since the cost of vaccines is capped by the government, the vaccine manufacturers need to be provided with appropriate incentives for ramping up the production, the industry body noted. FICCI has recommended financing under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) -type scheme to support vaccine manufacturers.

On Monday, India approved emergency use of Sputnik V Vaccine to combat the rise in cases.

Vaccine manufacturers that have been successful in other markets should be encouraged to come to India so that the supply chain is maintained. “Given that most of these vaccines have extensive dossier and data on their safety and efficacy for large populations, including for Indians living abroad, we should waive off the need for Indian clinical trial data,” Ficci said in a statement.

Many states including Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar have been facing the shortage of Covid 19 vaccines leading to scaling down of daily vaccination targets.

India aims to vaccinate priority population of 30 crore by August 2021. “Given that 10.85 crore people have received at least first dose of Covid vaccination and going with the current rate of 30 lakh vaccinations per day, we would need more than 38 crore doses (of two dose vaccines) to fully vaccinate this priority group,” the industry body noted.

“Further, with the current strategy and vaccination rate, we would be missing vaccinating our super-spreaders of the age group 18-45 years, who also form the majority of our workforce needed for sustaining economic activities,” the statement said.