Focus on sourcing local vaccine says Harsh Vardhan Shringla

New Delhi: Discussions are underway with major pharma companies about sourcing and possibly manufacturing their Covid-19 jabs locally while India is looking forward to WHO's nod for Bharat Biotech's indigenously developed vaccine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday.

Addressing the World Health Organisation's South-East Asia Regional Health Partners' Forum on Covid-19, he said the government has worked with key partners to ease regulatory disruptions to vaccine supply chains through diplomatic interventions.

India is fighting an "exceptionally severe" second wave of the contagion and it will participate in the process of creating global scale capacities that are needed to deal with pandemic-scale challenges, Shringla said.