On the day 2 of the FICCI HEAL annual healthcare conference, India touched a milestone on reaching 100 crore vaccinations including both the first and second doses.

A panel discussion was set in place on day 2 of the conference to discuss the current and future scenarios of deadly mutating virus. Since vaccines have been a buzz word for almost two years in a row, the panel discussed what are the future possibilities in terms of research and academia as far as COVID-19 vaccines are concerned.

Prof Y.K Gupta, President AIIMS – Bhopal & Jammu said, COVID-19 was one of the biggest challenges we faced and crossing 100 crores mark in terms of vaccination is a success story for science. Also, it has opened the gates for collaboration between industry and academia. Today we need to collaborate trans-boundary with research and academic bodies as well.” 

Adding on, Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech said, “We were the first country to make the typhoid conjugate vaccine in the world even when US and UK have not thought about it. A new start-up like us are looking at India differently. We don’t see ourselves as a generic vaccine company but we are looking to change Indian ecosystem in innovation.”

The panel discussion further highlighted upon the current and future COVID-19 vaccination scenarios, various types of vaccines, new offerings in the market as well as how mutating virus can impact the global healthcare system.

With currently Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik vaccines available in India while J&J single shot and Biological E are in pipeline, India is yet to achieve the ambitious target of vaccinating all adults by end of the year 2021.