India Becomes The Biggest Covid-19 Vaccine Buyer

India has become the number 1 buyer of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine doses. With 1,600 million as its requirement, India has currently a total of 9.57 million cases with 9.02 million recovered.

The study, ‘Launch and Scale Speedometer’, performed an analysis of data on vaccine procurement and manufacturing. The analysis was done to track the flow of procurement and better understanding of global equity challenges. North Carolina-based Duke University conducted research so as to identify Covid-19 vaccine candidates and status. Ongoing negotiations of procurement and manufacturing, virus burden in a country along with allocation and distribution plans was also a crucial reason for research. As per the study, countries like India and Brazil possess the manufacturing capacity. Both have also gained success in negotiating large advance market commitments with leading, prominent vaccine candidates as part of the manufacturing agreements.

With India as the biggest buyer, the European Union is in the second position with nearly 1,600 million doses. The United States comes third with a purchase of 1,000 million vaccine doses. Next are Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom in the line with purchase of less than 400 million confirmed vaccine doses as of now.

Duke University of North Carolina added, “Most high-income countries have been successful in negotiating the purchase with the help of large amounts of public funds invested into research and development of Covid-19 vaccines. Now they possess the leverage of making large-scale deals across a massive portfolio of vaccine candidates.”