Judy: India has long been called
the world's pharmacy. It is the
world's largest producer of
generic drugs, as well as
vaccines. Much of that capacity
was
re-purposed and increased to
produce covid vaccines, intended
particularly for low income
countries.
But as Fred de Sam Lazaro
reports from India, demand has
dwindled, creating a glut even
as many parts of the world
remain largely unvaccinated.
>> It's mostly adolescents who
trickle in these days for covid
shots, which were recently
approved for those 12 and older.
And it's a far cry from
conditions during and soon after
last year's catastrophic delta
surge that claimed hundreds of
thousands of lives.
Pushpa nirala was among parents
bringing their children in on
this day.
>> We saw so much illness the
last time. Everybody's
vaccinating their children, so I
thought mine should be
protected, too.
>> Just a few months ago, this
public health center outside of
New Delhi would have been
overwhelmed with people
desperately trying to get a
covid shot. Today, there's no
weight.
Anyone who needs a shot can get
one.
>> I came to get a booster shot.
I was satisfied with my first
two shots and it's been two
months now. If some people don't
take it, it endangers everyone.
>> Today, India's vaccination
rates are roughly comparable to
the U.S. Two thirds of adults
over 18 have received two doses.
Almost all have been made in
India, indigenously developed or
under license to global
pharmaceutical companies.
>> We have vaccinated close to a
billion people with two
vaccinations. And that's a
humongous achievement for a
country of our size.
>> KIRAN mazumdar-shaw founded a
diversified pharmaceutical
company in Bangalore called
biocon. She says for Indian
companies, long dominant in
vaccines, it was an easy pivot
to covid shots.
>> India was supplying the
vaccines that are required for,
you know, children's vaccination
programs, whether it is mmr,
polio.
India has always done it at
scale because of the size of our
own population.
And that has benefited the
world.
>> But the success of India's
covid vaccination campaign came,
at least in part, at the expense
of deliveries to other,
particularly low income
countries.
The u.n-backed vaccine-sharing
initiative covax had counted
heavily on Indian suppliers.
But amid the surge last year,
India's government suspended
exports for several months,
allocating all production for
domestic use.
>> We produced our first batch
of vaccine in this building.
>> Vikram paradkar is with
biological-e near the southern
city of hyderabad, which pivoted
and expanded capacity to meet
what was expected to be soaring
global demand.
>> We are producing 2 million
doses a day.
>> His company makes the Johnson
and Johnson covid vaccine under
license and helped develop
another, corbevax, with the
Baylor college of medicine in
Houston.
>> We supply the government of
India at about $2 a dose, which
is probably, I think, the lowest
price globally anywhere in the
world.
>> Biological-e spent about $195
million to double its capacity
during the pandemic.
But with global vaccine demand
dropping sharply this year,
production lines are being idled
across India, at least in the
short term.
And yet across Africa today,
fewer than one in five adults
are fully vaccinated.
About 40% of vaccine already
delivered hasn't gotten into
arms, something attributed to a
lack of funds, inadequate
distribution systems and an
overall relaxed attitude amid
lower hospitalization and
mortality rates in the
pandemic's omicron phase.
>> I don't think we learnt the
lesson of health equity as yet.
>> KIRAN mazumdar Shaw blames
the low vaccination rates in
part on western countries'
reluctance to share vaccines or
license them to Indian
manufacturers early on, when
people were desperate to get the
shots.
>> They could have shared some
of those stockpiles with the
developing world.
Initially they said we will only
use the western manufacturing
sites for vaccinating the
western populations, because
they are not very comfortable
with the other manufacturers in
the developing world countries.
>> For reasons of quality?
>> I hate to say it, but there
is a bit of racism in that.
And now it is very ironic that
most of the vaccines that are
now being deployed in the world
are actually being made in India
and Korea and other parts of the
>> She'd like to see some of the
excess vaccine-making capacity
repurposed for other disease
campaigns, like pneumococcal
pneumonia, malaria or dengue.
But biological E's paradkar says
the covid pandemic is not over,
and he says vaccinations and new
vaccines must remain April -- a
top priority.
>> We need to be two steps ahead
of the virus.
I'm not sure that we could
actually update our vaccine fast
enough. I would, I would rather
jump maybe a few more variants
ahead of it.
>> And those new variants are
more likely because of the
overall low vaccination rate,
says Dr. Srinath reddy.
>> The logic of evolutionary
biology that seems to drive the
survival of the virus,
unfortunately, does not seem to
prevail among human beings.
>> He heads the public health
foundation of India.
>> Western countries who have
three shots or four shots of
vaccines in their arms must
realize that variants will
emerge in countries where the
vaccination rates are very low,
where you have high levels of
HIV and are otherwise
immunosuppressed, and these will
find their way back to the rest
of the world.
>> A lesson in global
solidarity, he says, that the
world has been slow to learn.
For the "Pbs newshour," I'm Fred
de Sam Lazaro in New Delhi.
Judy: And a note that Fred's
reporting is a partnership with
the under-told stories project
at the university of
St. Thomas in Minnesota.