India is open to supplying vaccines manufactured in the country, including Covovax and Corbevax, in addition to Johnson and Johnson’s Janssen vaccines being produced by Biological E, under the Quad vaccine partnership, according to a source tracking the matter.

This is likely to be one of the issues to be discussed at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Australia on February 10-11 to be attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Vaccine partnership

The Quad countries, which include India, the US, Australia and Japan, announced a vaccine partnership in March 2021, resolving to deliver one billion doses of Quad vaccines to the Indo-Pacific region by the end of 2022. The production of Janssen vaccines started at Biological E facility in Hyderabad in October 2021, with assistance of the US Development Financial Cooperation through a credit line of $50 million, for supplies under the Quad initiative.

“India is now in a position to also supply other vaccines being produced in the country such as Covovax and Corbevax under the initiative. This is likely to be discussed at the Quad meeting on Friday,” the source said.

Covovax, which is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax and is part of the COVAX facility portfolio, got recognition from the World Health Organization (WHO) as a vaccine for emergency use in December 2021.

Biological E received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for Corbevax, India’s first indigenously developed protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19, in December 2021. The vaccine, which helps to build the body’s immune response against the virus, has been developed Bio E in collaboration with Texas Children’s Hospital Centre for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Bilateral agencies such as India’s Development Partnership Administration, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, US Development Finance Corporation and USAID, are to be actively involved in implementation of the Quad initiatives in the area of health, education, infrastructure and space, the source said.

The four Quad Foreign Ministers are meeting to do the groundwork for the Quad Summit likely in April-May this year. Apart from vaccine delivery, other issues to be discussed include critical and emerging technologies, climate challenge and global security environment, the official said.

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