India Is World's Largest Vaccine Producer by Volume: Minister

India is the world's largest vaccine producer and supplier by volume. Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh said so on 13 September 2026. He was speaking at a high-level reception for the Board and Investors Council of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, known as CEPI. The Department of Biotechnology and CEPI hosted it jointly at the India International Centre in New Delhi. The CEPI governance meeting returned to India after a decade.

India's place in world vaccine supply

The India-CEPI partnership

India is a founding member of CEPI. The engagement strategy between DBT, BIRAC and CEPI was first executed in October 2019. It was renewed in September 2025 for another five years. The India-centric mission is called Ind-CEPI. It is carried out by BRIC-THSTI and BIRAC.

What the partnership has delivered

Ind-CEPI produced GEMCOVAC-19, India's first mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, which received Emergency Use Authorisation. An inactivated chikungunya vaccine candidate is in Phase II and Phase III trials. Vaccine candidates against monkeypox and pan-sarbecoviruses use Multivalent Self-assembled Nanocage technology and are at an advanced pre-clinical stage. The BRIC-THSTI Bioassay Laboratory is one of CEPI's 17 centralised network laboratories. It has supported eight vaccine candidates and has tested more than one lakh samples.

Training and the road ahead

The PACT programme has trained more than 2,400 participants online. They came from 14 friendly and neighbouring countries. The Minister said India's varied disease burden is itself a scientific advantage for research on pathogens. He said the country now faces both communicable diseases and a rising load of non-communicable and metabolic disorders. He said India can add to the global store of biomedical solutions, not only to its own preparedness.