HISTORY OFFERS many excellent lessons for our science and technology development; but for that we need to know the past. Not the fabled past of mythical times based on folklore and imagined technical prowess, but the more recent history of modern India, when a poor, struggling nation set itself some ambitious targets. One of the more fascinating aspects of this history is the setting up of a penicillin manufacturing factory in the 1950s. Almost anyone with interest in pharmaceuticals knows about Hindustan Antibiotics, the first factory in the Third World to start production of critical drugs in 1954. Few, however, are aware of the ideological battles that were fought as Jawaharlal Nehru pondered the path of development that his newly independent country should pursue, when access to technology was elusive, resources were scarce and drug multinationals were determined to control markets through their know-how and patents. Why is this of any relevance now? Simply because we have not learned the lessons of the past.
What triggered this column's plunge into history was a small news item about the enormous sums the government had spent on procuring vaccines to fight the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. It reflected the concerns that India's first prime minister grappled with while dealing with the question of setting up manufacturing projects in the country and in particular, the penicillin project. The news report of August 4 said the Government of India had spent, till July 31, 2023, a total of ₹36,397 crore on COVID-19 vaccines. The big payout was to the Serum Institute of India, a contract manufacturer for Covishield, the vaccine developed by British multinational AstraZeneca. It received 25,583 crore for 1.3 billion doses, while Bharat Biotech, makers of the indigenously developed Covaxin earned ₹7,301 crore for 35 million doses. These figures reveal how far we are from the goal of self-reliance in pharma that Nehru had hoped for.
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