The way forward

India is facing an intense shortage of vaccines. It should revitalise other production centres in the country like the Dr. Haffkine Institute in Mumbai, Central Research Institute, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, BCG vaccine Laboratory, Guindy, Tamil Nadu, Pasteur Institute Conoor, Integrated Vaccine Complex in Tamil Nadu, and the Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL) in Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh). However, some of these will take three months to a year to go into production.

India can boost vaccine production by investing and refurbishing other vaccine producing units in the country, like they should all be revitalised. Every dose of vaccine can save a life. Even if all these institutes produce just 100 million doses per month, or 1,200 million doses per annum, it will help 600 million citizens. Even a small research institute can provide opportunities for the discovery of life saving vaccines. Dr. Waldemar Mordecal Haffkine was an orthodox Jewish Ukrainian scientist, who had discovered the vaccine for cholera in 1992 and was used to fight the disease in 1893 in Calcutta and Assam. His cholera vaccine was widely used in Russia and India. Later, an epidemic of bubonic plague struck Bombay city (now Mumbai, since 1995). The Government asked Dr. Haffline to work on the vaccines. He had at his disposal a makeshift laboratory in the corridors of the Grant Medical College. In about three months, he had developed a vaccine. He tested it on himself on 10 Jan,  1897. The vaccine had remarkable results and was deployed to fight the plague in Bombay.

So, great oak trees can grow from small acorns. Some of the smaller institutes in India may produce wonders, given the opportunity. Vaccines are the need of the hour. Every resource should be deployed to produce them, to save human lives. We cannot fail.

Rajendra Aneja
Mumbai, India