Adar Poonawalla thanks Biden, Jaishankar as US lifts Defence Production Act ratings on COVID vaccines

After US lifted embargo on the raw materials required to produce COVID-19 vaccine, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla credited US President Joe Biden and Externals Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the "policy change", stating that this will hopefully increase supply of raw materials globally.

"Thanks to the efforts of @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, & @DrSJaishankar, this policy change will hopefully increase the supply of raw materials globally and to India; boosting our vaccine production capacity and strengthening our united fight against this pandemic," Poonawalla tweeted.

Soon after Poonawalla tweeted, Jaishankar also chimed in and said, "Indian diplomacy is focussed on securing the vaccine supply chain."

On Thursday, the United States lifted an embargo which was imposed in February, under its Defence Production Act, which had ensure to use resources to produce doses for its population.

"US vaccine manufacturers, we are confident in our supply of our authorized vaccines. As a result, we're removing the DPA priority ratings for AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Sanofi," the White House said in a statement.

Zients is in charge of leading the global vaccine sharing effort and is coordinating with the National Security Council and State Department.

US is set to allocate the first tranche of 25 million COVID-19 vaccines globally to address potential surges and the needs of the most vulnerable countries affected by the pandemic, including India.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President Kamala Harris had a telephonic conversation and discussed the US' strategy for global vaccine sharing and Quad vaccine initiative to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

( With inputs from ANI )

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