Vaccine must not be entry barrier for nations: Bharat Biotech Co-Founder

New Delhi, Sep 22 : The Co-founder and Joint Managing Director of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, Suchitra Ella has said that vaccines should not be a barrier to enter into any nation.

Amid the ongoing row over new UK travel restrictions that consider fully Indian vaccinated as unvaccinated and prescribes 10-day quarantine, she said, "Vaccines must not be entry barriers for nations".

Underlining that India has supplied billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine the world over, Suchitra Ella tweeted, "Our vaccines will prove yet again that they are world class."

According to the new UK rules, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days, though the UK has revised its travel policy to include Covishield as an approved vaccine after India raised strong objections.

Bharat Biotech Co-founder tweeted, "Our vaccines will prove yet again, are world class. India has supplied billions of doses world over. Covid-19 taught us enough life lessons, vaccines must not be entry barriers for nations, when NRA approved & licensed, crossed 800 mn doses, no small achievement".

India's mass vaccination program is being run with mainly two vaccines Covishield and Covaxin. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research. Covishield has been developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca.

However, the WHO chief scientist Dr Saumya Swaminathan has said that all countries are supposed to follow the WHO recommendations. Talking to IANS, WHO chief scientist said, "WHO position is clear on this that all countries should recognize EUL vaccines. All countries supposed to follow our recommendations. They are not binding".