By Neha Arora
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that he has assured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that India would do its best to supply Canada with vaccines to fight the pandemic, potentially easing shortages faced in the country.
“Was happy to receive a call from my friend @JustinTrudeau. Assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada,” Modi said in a tweet.
Modi’s assurance comes while Canada has been struggling to quickly secure doses of Pfizer Inc’s and Moderna Inc’s vaccines against COVID-19.
Last week, Trudeau said Canada would succeed in inoculating its population despite “momentary disruptions” in vaccine supply. He promised tens of millions of doses would arrive in the months to come and reiterated that every Canadian seeking a shot would be vaccinated by September.
Modi’s tweet comes after a Canadian opposition member last week quizzed Canada’s Procurement Minister Anita Anand about whether Trudeau had called on Modi for help with supplies.
Canada does not yet have a vaccine manufacturing facility of its own and is reliant on foreign suppliers.
India, which boasts several vaccine manufacturing facilities in contrast, is fast emerging as a key supplier of shots to the world. And several western pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca Plc, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, among others have all tied up with Indian drug manufacturers to produce their vaccines for sales domestically and overseas.
Canada has also said deliveries of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine may begin before March end, if Canada’s health regulator approves its use.
Last week, Reuters reported that Verity Pharmaceuticals and Serum Institute of India (SII) – the world’s largest vaccine maker, have applied to distribute SII’s licensed version of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Canada.
Canada has recorded over 20,000 deaths and more than 810,000 cases of COVID-19 and many provinces have reimposed restrictions to combat a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reporting by Neha Arora; Editing by Euan Rocha, Alexandra Hudson)
