Opinion: India’s ‘vaccine heist’ and lax regulatory oversight imperil global vaccine access
When Covid-19 began sweeping across the globe in 2020, many experts expected India to be the vaccine savior of the developing world. That thought bubble has burst.
In the early days of the pandemic, as multiple vaccines were being rushed into clinical trials, intellectual property laws and patents were being viewed as big barriers that would prevent low-income countries from accessing lifesaving vaccines. That hasn’t come to pass. Instead, the real problems stem from the abject lack of procurement planning by a country that has immense vaccine manufacturing capacity and its shoddy regulatory oversight.
