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News > India

Largest Vaccine Producer Denounces US Raw Material Blockade

  • Biden promised to vaccinate 100 million people during his first 100 days in office.

    Biden promised to vaccinate 100 million people during his first 100 days in office. | Photo: Twitter/@thehill

Published 16 April 2021
Opinion

In February the Biden administration enforced the Defence Production Act, aiming to boost domestic production of the COVID-19 vaccines while blocking exports of raw material supplies to other manufacturers. 
 

India's Serum Institute (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, denounced on Friday that the U.S. government is blocking access to raw materials to produce the vaccines, which jeopardizes its distribution amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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SII Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla called on Biden via Twitter remarking that "if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details."

In February, Biden's administration enforced Defence Production Act, aiming to boost domestic production of the COVID-19 vaccines while blocking exports of raw material supplies to other manufacturers. This, after U.S. producers announced last year they would decrease their production target for 2021 due to a shortage of raw materials.

The decision pressured Biden, who promised to vaccinate 100 million people during his first 100 days in office. However, global distribution is starting to shake amid the blockade.

"The Novavax vaccine, of which we're a major manufacturer for, needs these items from the US...if we're talking about building capacity all over the world, the sharing of these critical raw materials is going to become a critical limiting factor - nobody has been able to address this so far," Poonawalla warned in March.

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