India has done better than any country in the world as regards to affordability and the reach to the people of COVID-19 vaccines, Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella said on Sunday.

Highlighting the enormity of the task of vaccination, Ella said, “When you have 1.3 billion people to be given a vaccine in a certain period of time, it is challenging.”
The US has more vaccines than India, but only 16 crore people there are vaccinated. “In India, I’m proud to say that we have done a great job,” he added.

About the contribution and efforts of Bharat Biotech in regards to vaccination efforts, Ella said that apart from Covaxin, the company has also developed an intranasal vaccine for COVID-19.
“We are working on a combination of Covaxin followed by nasal, so that Covaxin primes the system of innate immunity and then the boost by the nasal which produces three immune responses — the IgG, the IgA and then mucosal immunity,” he said.
All three immunities are powerful and can protect a person from getting infected, he added.