New Delhi: After sending shipments of vaccines to fight covid-19 to India’s immediate neighbours, New Delhi will begin commercial export of vaccines on Friday with the first two batches being despatched on a commercial basis going to Morocco and Brazil.
On Friday, Indian manufactured vaccines will be sent to two Indian Ocean island nations — Mauritius and Seychelles besides Myanmar. These as with other neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka are under a grant or as gifts by from government of India.
Consignments for Brazil and Morocco will also be despatched on Friday, a person familiar with the matter said adding that the shipments would include two million doses of vaccines each to the two countries. The supplies to these two countries will be on a commercial basis, the person cited above said.
The flight for Brazil is expected to leave at 0415 hours on Friday morning while the second to Morocco is to leave at 8 am.
The person did not say whether these vaccines were the Pune based Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca or the indigenously developed Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech.
Bharat Biotech has also signed an agreement with authorities in Phillipines for the necessary clearances, according to a Reuters report. This is a preliminary step ahead of starting commercial sales, a second person said.
Supplies to South Africa and Saudi Arabia too could be despatched soon, the second person said.
India began supplying vaccines to neighbouring countries on Wednesday with the despatch of vaccines to Bhutan and Maldives. The supplies to these two countries were on a grant basis or gifted by New Delhi. On Thursday, vaccines from New Delhi were sent to Nepal and Bangladesh.
The shipments to neighbouring countries cements India’s position as the first responder in times of crises as well as its primacy in South Asia. Shipments to countries beyond underlines India’s reputation as the “pharmacy to the world.”
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