India can seek funding for doses. It hasn't yet | Economic Times

India, which is currently facing a shortage of vaccines, has the option to seek funding under the World Bank’s $12-billion vaccine purchase fund, but has so far chosen not to do so.The country has received $2.5 billion as financial assistance to deal with the fallout of Covid-19 pandemic but none of this has to do with vaccines.A spokesperson from the multilateral financial institution told ET that the country had not asked for any funds for vaccine purchase.“India is eligible for financing under the World Bank programme for vaccines. While several projects to support India’s response to the pandemic are underway, we have not received a request from the government of India for vaccine procurement,” a World Bank spokesperson from India told ET in an emailed response.82954430Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the World Bank has been working in partnership with the government of India (GoI) and other development partners to “rapidly mobilise support”, the spokesperson added.In South Asia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka in South Asia have dipped into the World Bank's vaccine purchase fund to buy jabs directly from pharma companies, from countries with excess supply, or through the GAVI-backed Covax initiative.Under this programme, Sri Lanka has received funding worth $80 million to purchase Covid-19 vaccines from Serum Institute of India/AstraZeneca to inoculate 40% of the country’s population.Similar deals have been signed by countries such as Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.The spokesperson also said that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, has loaned $30 million to Hyderabad based Biological E for manufacturing paediatric vaccines for routine immunisations and to “boost the company's capacity for manufacturing any future Covid-19 vaccine.”Within the government a few officials have proposed the idea of reaching out to the World Bank to seek funding, ET has learned. But there has been no action over this.India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive has been hit by shortage of vaccines in the country — a situation which some analysts attribute to a delay in pre-ordering jabs in contrast to the US, UK and the EU.As part of a new policy which has taken effect from May 1, GoI has also left it to the state governments to procure vaccines and float a global tender to buy other vaccines manufactured by multinational drug makers such as Pfizer and Moderna. However, these global tenders have received little response so far and these companies have said that they prefer to deal with the central government.