New Delhi:There are no free lunches in international diplomacy. India may have seemingly buckled to US pressure to supply hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat the COVID 2019 infected, but will expect a preferential treatment when US, most possibly, churns out the first ever vaccine to treat the global pandemic that has wreaked havoc with vengeance across the world.
And it could be sooner than July.
At this moment, at least 60 different entities including governments and companies across the world are racing against time to bring out the till now elusive cure for the novel coronavirus although it is widely expected that either US or China or their companies will touch the finish line first.
“There are at least 60 COVID-19 vaccine projects that have started up or are in planning. Of this 60, at least five are in advanced stages of development. There is reason to believe that a vaccine may come up in less than three months and most possibly from the US,” Krishna Sarma, managing partner, Corporate Law Group, told ETV Bharat.
The trials involve testing on quite a few parameters. From testing on animals, the drugs are tested on human beings, stability of the vaccine against all known variants of the virus (COVID 2019 is known to have at least four strains), and most importantly, whether the cure has any side-effects.
“Vaccines that do stimulate strong immune responses can also have adverse side-effects or may even make a disease worse. For these reasons, vaccines have to be put through lengthy trials to ensure no dangerous side-effects are revealed,” says Sarma whose firm specializes in bio-pharmaceutical industry practice.
Additionally, India may also have an eye on US aid to fight the dreaded contagion and would like nothing more than to stimulate American largesse. After all, the state of funds at the disposal of the Indian government is not exactly a well-kept secret.
Known for its fight against rampant malaria, India is the world’s biggest producer of the anti-malarial drug HCQ. More than 100 Indian companies are engaged in the process. But it is China that supplies the ingredients (called Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient or API).
On Monday, US President Donald Trump at a White House press briefing obliquely indicated of ‘retaliation’ if India continued to restrict HCQ imports to US.