India’s leading vaccine manufacturers met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at this residence on Saturday. Several of them heaped praise on Mr. Modi’s leadership.
“The Prime Minister went out of his way and made all the regulatory people move very fast and that is why India has been able to achieve the numbers it has,” said Cyrus Poonawalla, Managing Director, Serum Institute of India, which has supplied over 88% of the 100 crore vaccines.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continuously encouraged us,” said Pankaj Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Zydus Cadilla healthcare, which is manufacturing the ZycovD vaccine that has been approved for those above 12.
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“We are really proud of the country. PM Modi was determined and he converted the initial pessimism into an opportunity. That is the mark of a leader,” said Krishna Ella, Chairman, Bharat Biotech Ltd., that has developed Covaxin.
“PM Modi praised the efforts of vaccine manufacturers which resulted in India achieving the 100-crore milestone and said they had played a big role in the success story of India. He appreciated their hard work and confidence given by them during the pandemic,” a press statement following the meeting said.
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Best practices
Mr. Modi said the country needed to institutionalise the best practices learnt from the last one and a half years and said this is an opportunity to modify practices and synchronise them to global standards. He said the entire world is looking up to India in the backdrop of the success of the vaccination drive. He also said the manufacturers should continuously work together to be ready to face future challenges.
The manufacturers said had the country been following old norms, there would have been a considerable delay and “we would not have been able to reach the vaccination level that we have attained till now”.
Following the meeting, Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, credited Mr. Modi’s vision for the milestone and said they discussed how to take the industry forward and prepare for future pandemics, to continue enhancing the capacity.
“All over the world now, countries are going to invest in vaccine production and India needs to stay ahead. We discussed how to do that together with the industry and the Government,” he said.
Other participants included Mahima and Narender Mantela (Biological E Ltd.), Dr. Sanjay Singh and Satish Mehta (Gennova Biopharmaceuticals), Satish Reddy and Deepak Sapra (Dr. Reddy’s Lab) and Dr. Rajesh Jain and Harshit Jain (Panacea Biotech). Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and officials from the Health Ministry were also present.