The United States has backed the plan to suspend COVID vaccine patents. However, Dr Sharvil Patel, MD of Zydus Cadila said that patents do not cover every detail of the biological process and it will be difficult to manufacture COVID vaccines on our own without technology transfers.
“Practically if one has to do a technology transfer, I would believe it would require at least 6 months. Not only do you need to do the technology transfer which is at small scale, but when you have to scale this process up to make a good vaccine that matters in terms of population, you will have to do a capital investment which again is going to take anywhere between 6-9 months even if you are very aggressive,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
“From all practical purposes, unless you have a manufacturing footprint which is identical to the vaccine patent holder, then only you can do it in 6 months. Otherwise, it is a process that will take longer than 6 months to do,” he added.
Patel also said that one cannot repurpose an existing injectable facility to manufacture a vaccine. “For making a vaccine, you need a vaccine API facility or a biological facility which has nothing to do with sterile injectable manufacturing. So, a sterile drug product manufacturing facility cannot be repurposed to make a vaccine,” he said.
He also said that it is important for a vaccine manufacturer to consider the cost of making a new vaccine as well as consider what works for India in terms of cost and distribution of the vaccine.
Patel also said that Zydus Cadila is in talks with other Indian manufacturers for technology transfer and is also looking at global tie-ups for their vaccine.
Watch the video for more.