India Can Develop New Pandemic Vaccine in 150 Days, Says Top Health Expert
Nagpur: India possesses the scientific capacity, manufacturing strength, and regulatory preparedness to develop and roll out a new vaccine within 150 days if a fresh pandemic emerges, according to Dr Narendra Kumar Arora, a senior public health expert and former member of the national Covid vaccine task force.
Enhanced Pandemic Response Capabilities
Arora, currently president of AIIMS Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) and executive director of INCLEN Trust International, stated that the experience during Covid-19 has fundamentally altered India's pandemic response capabilities. As a key member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), which guided vaccine policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, Arora emphasized that India no longer starts from scratch in such crises.
"India has multiple vaccine platforms ready for rapid adaptation," Arora said during Maharashtra's first Research Day event at AIIMS Nagpur on Monday. "These include mRNA, DNA, viral vector, inactivated virus, live attenuated, protein subunit, and virus-like particle platforms. Once the pathogen is identified, the scientific groundwork is already there. You only need to plug in the new antigen."
World's Largest Vaccine Producer
Highlighting India's manufacturing prowess, Arora noted that the country is now the world's largest vaccine producer, supplying most global doses at costs far lower compared to the West. He stressed that biomedical research is not just a health priority but a matter of economic stability, stating, "A pandemic can cripple the national economy overnight. Research capacity is as strategic as defence preparedness."
Arora pointed out that during Covid-19, India did not import a single vaccine dose, underscoring self-reliance in biomedical manufacturing. "India does not lack intellectual capital. Earlier, a conducive ecosystem was missing, but that gap has been filled now," he said, while highlighting the government's push to strengthen research ecosystems through large-scale funding via national research initiatives, particularly in biomedical sciences.
