Promising pipeline of vaccines, but affordability is key

BANGALORE • When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a shot of the country's first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine on March 1, he said: "Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against Covid-19."

Three months earlier, Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech International using the whole inactivated coronavirus, had received emergency approval from India's drug regulator - even before the key third phase of its human clinical trial proved the extent of its efficacy against the coronavirus.