BackVax makers fret over raw material curbs by US
Raw materials that are facing a supply crunch due to the law include single-use and clinical materials like quality control reagents, single-use plastic bags, filters, Sai Prasad, president of DCVMN and executive director of quality operations at Bharat Biotech International said
PremiumNEW DELHI: Vaccine manufacturers outside the US continue to face challenges to scale up production after the US government invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) in February to restrict the export of key raw materials, officials from the global vaccine manufacturing industry said on Friday.
“If the DPA is not handled properly or tackled effectively, then the supply chain will get impacted and, in turn, capacities that we are talking about, building global capacities, will get adversely impacted. I think this is one of the biggest challenges we have today in terms of manufacturing and supply chain," said Rajinder Suri, chief executive officer, Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN).
The short supply of key raw materials include single-use and clinical products such as quality control reagents, single-use plastic bag and filters, said Sai Prasad, president of the DCVMN, and executive director of quality operations, Bharat Biotech International.
Global vaccine makers, including those in India, had last month published a discussion paper, saying that countries must ease raw material exports and companies should facilitate technology transfer to help drugmakers rapidly scale up covid vaccine production to meet soaring demand.
At a press conference on Friday, Prasad said technology transfer is a challenging process as it should be offered to a firm with the capability to handle technology and efficiently manufacture the vaccine.
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