'Increase vaccine production': Poothavalla Jaisankar, Biden thanks for policy change

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla has thanked US President Joe Biden, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for policy change with respect to raw material needed for vaccine production saying it will boost manufacturing and strengthen fight against Covid.

Taking to Twitter, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said, "Thanks to the efforts of @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, & @DrSJaishankar, this policy change will hopefully increase the supply of raw materials globally and to India; boosting our vaccine production capacity and strengthening our united fight against this pandemic."

Earlier on Thursday, the United States announced its global vaccine sharing policy under which India will also receive a part of the share.

India will be a "significant recipient" of US vaccines, the country’s envoy said as President Joe Biden announced details of his administration’s decision to send 25 million COVID-19 shots to countries across the globe.

US President Joe Biden announced that the US will allocate 75 per cent - nearly 1.9 crore of the first tranche of 2.5 crore doses - of unused COVID-19 vaccines from its stockpile through the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing programme to countries in South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa.

The move is part of his administration’s framework for sharing 80 million (8 crore) vaccines globally by the end of June.