The Quad leaders welcomed Hyderabad-based Biological E’s production, including through Quad investments, of at least one billion safe and effective vaccines by the end of 2022

Quad leaders of India, Australia, Japan and the US on Saturday met in-person for the first time and discussed in length challenges faced by the world on Covid-19 pandemic, Climate change and in the Indo-Pacific region.

On the Covid-19 vaccine front, India conveyed its decision to resume vaccine exports from October and this was welcomed by all members of the informal group. Taking forward the Quad vaccine initiative, it was noted that Biological E, a Hyderabad-based company, would be producing one million doses of vaccine by October 2021. India would be financing 50 percent of the first consignment of this vaccine.

Overall with investments from Quad countries, Biological E will produce at least one billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.

As per the joint statement issued by Quad leaders after their meeting, Japan will help regional partners purchase vaccines through $3.3 billion of COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan. Australia will deliver $212 million in grant aid to purchase vaccines for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. In addition, Australia will allocate $219 million to support last-mile vaccine rollouts and lead in coordinating the Quad’s last-mile delivery efforts in those regions

Significantly, through the COVAX initiative, India, Japan, Australia and the US have pledged to donate more than 1.2 billion doses globally of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines. Till now, the Quad members have delivered nearly 79 million, safe, effective and quality-assured vaccine doses to countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

In their joint statement, the Quad leaders talked about the launch of the Quad Vaccine Experts Group, composed of top experts from Indian, Japanese, Australian and the US governments. These experts, as per the joint statement, are charged with building strong ties and better aligning the group’s plans to support Indo-Pacific health security and Covid-19 response.

The Quad leaders also decided to strengthen their Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation in the areas of clinical trials and genomic surveillance so that they can accelerate their efforts to end this pandemic and build better health security.

“We are committed to align around shared global targets to help vaccinate the world, save lives now, and build back better, including by strengthening global health security financing and political leadership. Our countries will also conduct a joint pandemic-preparedness tabletop or exercise in 2022,” Quad leaders said in their joint statement.