US vaccine donation: Regulatory issues holding up supplies to India

New Delhi: India is yet to receive coronavirus vaccines from the US under its global donation programme as certain regulatory issues are holding up the supplies, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday. Last month, the US pledged to ship 80 million doses of American made COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world to help them fight the pandemic. A large number of countries, including in India's neighbourhood, have already received the vaccines from the US. It was estimated then that India could get one to two million doses of the vaccines.

The people cited above said the issue of indemnity is linked to the supply of US vaccines to India and a reason for the delay. Grant of indemnity would provide vaccine suppliers protection from legal liability in the event of adverse reaction among the vaccine recipients. When asked what was holding back the supplies of the vaccines to India, a US embassy spokesperson said the delay is not from the US side.

"As President Joe Biden announced earlier this year, the United States will share 80 million doses from our own vaccine supply with countries around the world," the spokesperson said.

"As part of that, before we can ship doses, each country must complete its own domestic set of operational, regulatory, and legal processes that are specific to each country," the spokesperson added.

"In the case of India: the delay is not from the US side. India has determined that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations. Once India works through its legal process, our donation of vaccines to India will proceed expeditiously," the spokesperson said.