Canada received its first batch of around five lakh doses of Covishield vaccine on Thursday (04 March), manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII).
“The first tranche of five lakh doses arrived this morning in Canada from Serum Institute of India with 15 lakh more doses to follow. We look forward to future collaboration,” said Anita Anand, Canadian Minister of Public Services & Procurement.
Canada, which is a first-world country with an advanced economy, does not have the domestic production capacity to develop or produce vaccines, which is why it has asked for CoVID-19 vaccines from India and elsewhere, reports LiveMint.
In February, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had called the Indian PM Narendra Modi with a request for vaccines.
Trudeau then went on to say that if the world managed to conquer COVID-19, “it would be significant because of India’s tremendous pharmaceutical capacity, and PM Modi’s leadership in sharing this capacity with the world.”
India has already sent 67.5 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines as grant assistance and 294.44 lakh doses on a commercial basis to various countries.
India manufactures 60 per cent of global vaccines and is one of the world’s biggest drug-maker. Already, consignments of anti-coronavirus vaccine doses have been sent as gifts to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.
India has also provided the Covid-19 vaccines to Bahrain, Oman, Afghanistan, Barbados and Dominica.
Countries with which India has commercial agreements to provide the vaccines include Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Kuwait and the UAE.
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