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According to a study by the US? Duke University, India – the world’s second most populated country – has emerged as the biggest buyer of COVID-19 vaccine as it has secured 1,600 million doses of the vaccine. 

While the European Union is at the second position with nearly 1,600 million doses, the United States, which continues to be the worst affected nation, has managed to purchase 1,000 million vaccine doses.

On November 30, the study, Launch and Scale Speedometer, analysed the vaccine procurement data and showed that the world would need more than five billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to stop the spread of the virus. 

Countries like India and Brazil, having manufacturing capacity and infrastructure have been successful in negotiating the terms and conditions with the producers and distributors of the vaccine, the study noted. 

The study further read that countries with less population like Japan, Canada and the UK had purchased less than 400 million doses of the vaccine; the world might not have enough doses to vaccinate the entire global population until 2023-24. 

Countries having high-income hold 3.8 billion confirmed doses while countries with low income hold close to 1.7 billion doses, the study further added. Countries with a high income had been able to negotiate the purchase from the buyers due to availability of public funds; they had their own teams, labs and research centres to develop a cure of the virus, which had killed more than 1.5 million people globally. 

At 9.57 million cases and 139k deaths, India is one of the most affected countries by the virus.