The Government of India has reportedly acquired over 1.6 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses for its citizens from different sources. According to global analysis, the ordered doses are more than those bought by any other country.

As per reports, the nation pulled this off by leveraging its substantial manufacturing clout, purchasing over 500 million Oxford University-AstraZeneca-developed vaccine doses, over one billion doses of vaccines developed by American company, Novavax, and approximately 100 million Sputnik V doses from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute.

Duke University Global Health Innovation Centre stated that India, which is a middle-income nation, has purchased more doses than the ones bought by high-income countries, including Britain and USA, and even more than the whole EU, all of whom have their own in-country capacities of vaccine development.

Meanwhile, United States, with the most number of cases in the world, has bought over 1.01 billion doses and the EU has pre-ordered 1.58 billion vaccine doses. Apparently, 7.3 billion vaccine orders were confirmed even before any of the viable vaccine candidates obtained approvals from regulators, with additional 2.5 billion doses being under negotiation.

The Duke report claims several nations would be able to effectively vaccinate the entirety of their population, with some being able to do so several times over, before low-income countries are able to vaccinate their citizens.

As things stand, the 1.6 billion doses ordered by India would cover approximately 800 million individuals, or over 60% of its population. In November, the Health Minister of India, Harsh Vardhan, stated that an estimated 400 million to 500 million vaccine doses are to be made available for over 250 million to 300 million individuals across India by July-August of 2021.

High-income countries negotiated vaccine purchases by investing public funds towards vaccine research as well as development and by leveraging their purchasing power to make early deals. These nations hedged their bets by ordering multiple vaccine candidates, in an event some fail to materialize.

However, as a middle-income nation, India was able to move itself to the front of the line by using a different strategy; leveraging its robust manufacturing infrastructure.

Source credit: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/india-buys-16b-vaccine-doses-said-to-be-most-in-the-world