The Modi government’s approach to vaccines is based on the central pillar of RSS ideology: the task of the state is only to help big capital. Anything else including planning is “socialism”. In the case of vaccines, it means no attempt to get the companies—both public and private sector together—to plan what was required for a quick vaccination program; put in the money and the necessary supply chain. Instead, it believed that India’s private pharmaceutical industry would do all of this on its own.
Russia and China deliver, while the west makes its demands and continues to lose esteem and influence.
Did you read the article? India has more than sufficient production capacity itself, no need for anyone to deliver anything. They just need to get their shit together (and ditch their horribly incompetent current government).
What I am reading is that Gates is against the WHO’s request to stop IP restrictions, so that India can produce generics. Meanwhile Sputnik V is licensed for production in India.
That is what the click bait head-line says. The actual article is about the huge messup and squandering of production capacity of their own home grown vaccine by the Modi government.
So, while lifting IP protection and freely licensing SputnikV is great, it does not solve the real problem the article mainly talks about.
It’s not just about the production capacity of India. India currently has two vaccines - Covishield (Oxford & AstraZeneca developed, manufactured by Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (Indian Council of Medical Research & Bharat BioTech, manufactured by Bharat BioTech). Sputnik V is a new addition from Russia.
While it would be wise to blame the country for the under production of Covaxin, because it’s a home grown vaccine and public money was involved in its development. It could’ve been manufactured by more than one manufacturer in the country.
But, in case of Covishield, only SII has the license to manufacture it. If the IP rules are to be waived, it could be manufactured by others in the country.
The whole point is, countries like India have the capability to mass produce vaccines to satisfy domestic needs and to help other countries that don’t have the necessary facilities to do so. The rich countries have secured enough vaccines (How rich countries are making the pandemic last longer) and in the case of UK, they have clause in the vaccine contracts to give it more preference, should the producer face shortages (link).
