When and which Covid-19 vaccines likely to be available in India and other Asian countries

News Network
November 26, 2020

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Pfizer Inc with partner BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc have released trial data this month showing their experimental vaccines are effective in preventing the disease.

If regulators approve any of the vaccines in coming weeks, the companies have said distribution could begin almost immediately with governments around the world.

But many Asian countries do not expect to receive big amounts initially, and below are estimated distribution timelines, supply deals announced so far and clinical trials underway in the region.

Australia

It has agreed to buy 135 million doses: 34 million from AstraZeneca, 40 million from Novavax Inc, 10 million from Pfizer and 51 million from CSL Ltd.

It expects delivery of 3.8 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine in January and February next year.

China

China has not announced supply deals with Western drugmakers, which instead have partnered with private companies.

AstraZeneca's vaccine may be approved in China by mid-2021 and its Chinese partner Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products plans to have annual production capacity of at least 100 million doses of the vaccine by end-2020.

For the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a unit of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group plans a Phase 2 trial.

Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding is bringing in Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik V and plans early and mid-stage trials of the shot in China.

China has also approved three vaccine candidates developed by Sinovac and state-owned Sinopharm for emergency use programme, and Sinopharm is hopeful of its two candidates receiving conditional approval for general public use within this year.

Japan

Japan has deals to purchase 120 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech in the first half of next year, 120 million from AstraZeneca, of which first 30 million will be shipped by March 2021, and 250 million from Novavax.

It is also in talks with Johnson & Johnson and has a deal with Shionogi & Co.

Experts said vaccine makers would need to conduct at least Phase 1-2 trials in Japan before seeking approval.

South Korea

It aims to secure vaccines for 10 million people from COVAX and 20 million people from separate deals with drugmakers by the end of this year.

It has the "Optional Purchase" arrangement with COVAX that allows it to select vaccines from specific vaccine makers.

The timing of the procurement and the amount depend on the production schedule of those vaccines, according to health officials.

Inoculation is likely to start in the second quarter of next year to allow more time to observe potential side effects.

India

The head of the Serum Institute of India, which makes the AstraZeneca vaccine, said on November 23 the positive late-state trial result of the candidate will allow it to seek emergency use authorisation by year-end, before gaining approval for a full rollout by February or March next year.

India also expects a government-backed vaccine to be launched as early as February, while it is conducting a late-stage trial of Sputnik V.

Taiwan

Taiwan aims to secure around 15 million doses initially, both via the COVAX scheme and by directly purchasing from vaccine makers, and may buy additional 15 million doses.

The government has said it hopes to begin vaccinations in the first quarter of next year.

The Philippines

It is in talks with AstraZeneca for the supply of at least 20 million doses, which may arrive in the country in the second quarter of next year. It hopes to lock in 60 million doses in total and also is in talks with Pfizer and Sinovac.

Vaccine makers can apply for approval with the country's regulators even if no clinical trial is done in the Philippines.

Indonesia

It is one of the countries listed as 92 low and middle-income economies, which means it is entitled to have access to vaccines through COVAX for 20% of its population, or approximately 106-107 million doses if each person gets two injections.

Indonesia is testing Sinovac vaccine and preparing to start mass vaccination for medical staff and other frontline workers as early as late January.

Vietnam

A government official says vaccines from COVAX would cover only 20% of its population and the country is likely to have a chance to secure separate deals soon as overall demand is very high.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh signed a deal with India's Serum to buy 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

It also expects to receive 68 million doses from GAVI at a subsidized rate, a senior health ministry official said.

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News Network
March 28,2024

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Russia says it is "extremely hard to believe" that Daesh could have staged the recent hugely deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that the country's intelligence and security officials have blamed on Ukraine and its Western backers.

Four gunmen burst into the Russian capital's Crocus City Hall on Friday and began shooting at the people, who were attending an event. The Takfiri terrorist group has allegedly claimed responsibility for the massacre that killed at least 143.

Speaking on Wednesday, however, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cast that claim into serious doubt.

"In order to ward off suspicions from the collective West, they urgently needed to come up with something, so they resorted to ISIS (Daesh), pulled an ace out of their sleeve, and literally a few hours after the terrorist attack, the Anglo-Saxon media began disseminating precisely these versions," she said.

The chief of the Russian internal intelligence (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov has suggested that not only Ukraine, but also the United States and Britain might have been behind the shooting.

The Russian Federal Security Service has also said the gunmen planned to travel to Ukraine, where they were to be welcomed as "heroes." The FSB said Western intelligence services aided the attackers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also suggested that Ukraine stood to derive benefit from the attack and that Kiev might have played a role.

He has said that someone on the Ukrainian side had prepared a "window" for the gunmen to escape across the border before they were captured in western Russia on Friday night.

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News Network
March 14,2024

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The high-level committee on simultaneous elections, chaired by Ram Nath Kovind, on Thursday met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted its report on 'One Nation, One Election'. The report comprises 18,626 pages.

Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at Rashtrapati Bhawan when Kovind led panel submitted the report.

"Simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be held in first step, followed by local body polls within 100 days in second step," reported PTI quoting the panel.

"Synchronised polls for all three tiers of government to improve governance architecture, in line with quest of aspirational India," it added.

The report has been submitted 191 days after the constitution of the panel on September 2, 2023.

It's further reported that the proposal also puts focus on having a singular electoral roll for holding Lok Sabha, state assembly and local body polls.

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News Network
March 21,2024

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New Delhi: India has now become more unequal in terms of wealth concentration than the British colonial period as income and wealth of the top 1% of the country’s population have hit historical highs, according to a paper released by World Inequality Lab.

By 2022-23, the top 1 per cent income share in India was 22.6 per cent and the top 1 per cent wealth share rose to 40.1 per cent, with India’s top 1 per cent income share among the very highest in the world, higher than even South Africa, Brazil and the US.

Co-authored by economists Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi, the paper stated that the “Billionaire Raj” headed by “India’s modern bourgeoisie” is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces. 

The paper said there is evidence to suggest the Indian tax system might be “regressive when viewed from the lens of net wealth”. A restructuring of the tax code is needed, the paper said, adding that a levy of a “super tax” of 2 per cent on the net wealth of 167 wealthiest families would yield 0.5 per cent of national income in revenues and create space for investments.

“A restructuring of the tax code to account for both income and wealth, and broad-based public investments in health, education and nutrition are needed to enable the average Indian, and not just the elites, to meaningfully benefit from the ongoing wave of globalisation. Besides serving as a tool to fight inequality, a “super tax” of 2% on the net wealth of the 167 wealthiest families in 2022-23 would yield 0.5% of national income in revenues and create valuable fiscal space to facilitate such investments,” the paper said. 

The paper has analysed data based on the annual tax tabulations published by the Indian income tax authorities to extract the distribution of top income earners between 1922-2020.

The share of national income going to the top 10 per cent fell from 37 per cent in 1951 to 30 per cent by 1982 after which it began steadily rising. From the early 1990s onwards, the top 10 per cent share increased substantially over the next three decades, nearly touching 60 per cent in the most recent years, the paper said. This compares with the bottom 50 per cent getting only 15 per cent of India’s national income in 2022-23.

 The top 1 per cent earn on average Rs 5.3 million, 23 times the average Indian (Rs 0.23 million). Average incomes for the bottom 50 per cent and the middle 40 per cent stood at Rs 71,000 (0.3 times national average) and Rs 1,65,000 (0.7 times national average), respectively.
The richest, nearly 10,000 individuals (of 92 million Indian adults) earn on average Rs 480 million (2,069 times the average Indian). “To get a sense of just how skewed the distribution is, one would have to be at nearly the 90th percentile to earn the average income in India,” the paper said.

In 2022, just the top 0.1 per cent in India earned nearly 10 per cent of the national income, while the top 0.01 per cent earned 4.3 per cent share of the national income and top 0.001 per cent earned 2.1 per cent of the national income.

Enlisting the probable reasons for sharp rise in top 1 per cent income shares, the paper said public and private sector wage growth could have played a part till the late 1990s, adding that there are good reasons to believe capital incomes likely played a role in subsequent years. For the shares of the bottom 50 per cent and middle 40 per cent remaining depressed, the paper said, the primary reason has been the lack of quality broad-based education, focused on the masses and not just the elites.

“One reason to be concerned with such high levels of inequality is that extreme concentration of incomes and wealth is likely to facilitate disproportionate influence on society and government. This is even more so in contexts with weak democratic institutions. After largely being a role model among post-colonial nations in this regard, the integrity of various key institutions in India appears to have been compromised in recent years. This makes the possibility of India’s slide towards plutocracy even more real. If only for this reason, income and wealth inequality in India must be closely tracked and challenged,” it said.

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