'About 70% of vaccines used around the world are made in India'

Dr Jerome Kim, considered the world’s most authoritative voice on vaccines, said on Friday that India has a huge role to play in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. 

"About 70% of the vaccines used around the world for extended immunisation programmes are made in India," Dr Kim told WION. 

Dr Kim, the Director-General of International Vaccine Institute, joined Palki Sharma Upadhyay on Gravitas, WION’s prime time show, from Seoul on Friday to talk about several issues including South Korea’s success story against the COVID-19.

South Korea is being heralded globally for its response against COVID-19 which helped flatten the curve in the country against the infectious disease. Rigorous testing was the hallmark of South Korea’s response. Positive cases were promptly isolated and treated. Almost 2/3rd of the total patients have recovered. South Korea's model is now considered the gold standard of fighting against the virus.

A clinical scientist and the world’s leading voice on vaccines who lead the US military’s program on the HIV vaccine, Kim had a lot to say about India’s role in the fight against COVID-19.

Dr Jerome said that with 7 billion people in the world who should potentially be vaccinated, someone has to make the vaccine, make a lot of doses and make it quickly.

"India has a big role to play, not only because of its population, but we know that India has a very very important vaccine manufacturing industry," he said.

"About 70% of the vaccines used around the world for extended immunization programmes are made in India" he added.

"Almost every child in the world has received a vaccine, made in India and that’s really important," the doctor said. 

"It means Indian companies put out a billion vaccines a year and that’s the kind of capacity we are going to need in order to get this vaccine to the people who need it all over the world not just to people in the United States and Europe, but Asia, India, and Africa. So are going to need companies who have the capacity and the know-how to make vaccines" he concluded.

Dr Jerome mentioned there is something we may be overlooking, going on to add that "India has great universities and a lot of very talented and intelligent people, a thriving biotech industry and all of those resources could be brought to bear on this, probably the greatest pandemic threat in the last 100 years. India has a lot to contribute".

He noted that not all countries were able to begin the process of Testing - Tracking - Isolating and Treating on time, citing the rampant rise in cases in the United States and Italy. 

According to Dr Jerome, 98% of the people with COVID 19 infection eventually recover. India is in an early stage and what the government is doing hopefully could be effective to help limit the spread of COVID 19 in the population. The key is the careful monitoring of the testing and reporting of those tests back to the central government, a critical place where information can be gathered and shared and clear concise decisive messaging from a single source can be relayed to the Indian people.

Established in 1997, International Vaccine Institute (IVI) operates as an independent international organization under a treaty signed by 35 countries and the World Health Organization and is the world’s only international organization devoted exclusively to developing and introducing new and improved vaccines to protect the world’s poorest people.