India to miss end-July Covid-19 vaccination target as Bharat Biotech lags

India will miss a target to administer over 50 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of the month as Bharat Biotech - maker of its only approved homegrown shot - struggles to boost output, an analysis of government data showed on Monday.

India has undertaken one of the world's largest vaccination drives and has so far distributed some 43 crore doses - more than any country except China, but less than many countries relative to its population.

The government said in May it would make 51.6 crore shots available by the end of July. It wants to inoculate all its estimated 94.4 crore adults by December.

To meet the July-end target, however, authorities will have to more than triple the average daily vaccinations to 1.4 crore doses a day. But that will not be possible, based on the latest supply projections for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin vaccine.

The government had been counting on deliveries of 6-7 crore Covaxin doses monthly from July or August.

But Bharat Biotech will only supply 2.5 crore doses this month and 3.5 crore in August as a new production line in the southern city of Bengaluru takes time to come online, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Parliament last week.

Mandaviya added that the supply shortfall "would not affect our immunisation programme".

The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bharat Biotech declined to comment on its production.

The government is counting on 50 crore doses of another vaccine, Covishield, from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and 40 crore doses from Bharat Biotech between August and December for its vaccination campaign.

India's drug regulator controversially approved Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for emergency use in early January without efficacy data. But it has missed nearly all its supply commitments to the government.

Immunisation efforts have also been hobbled by a delayed rollout of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. And legal obstacles have prevented India from receiving U.S. donations of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

After halting exports in mid-April to meet domestic demand, the SII has nearly doubled output in the past three months.

Nearly 88% of all vaccine doses administered in India to date have been SII's Covishield shot, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The government expects the company to raise supplies of its Covishield vaccine to about 12 crore doses in August from 10 crore doses in June.

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