The world is looking up to India for its vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a meeting on Saturday as he praised pharma industry executives manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines.

Modi’s comments come days after India delivered the billionth dose of coronavirus vaccines, more than any other country in the world except China. As on Saturday evening, at least 1.02 billion doses have been given to people, covering a little over 76% of the 940 million adults eligible for inoculation.

Modi credited vaccine makers for having played a “big role in the success story of India” and the country’s reaching the 1-billion milestone, according to an official statement.

Vaccine makers should continuously work together to be ready to face future challenges, Modi told top executives of seven vaccine manufacturers.

“The Prime Minister discussed the government’s roadmap for the future with the companies. He also congratulated them and discussed how the vaccination of those not yet inoculated needs to be sped up,” said a person aware of the discussions, asking not to be named.

There is need to institutionalise the best practises learnt during the last one-and-a-half years, Modi said, adding that “this is an opportunity to modify our practises, in tune with the global standards”, according to the government statement.

Among those that attended the meeting were executives from Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, the makers of the vaccines mostly in use at present; Zydus Cadila, Biological E, Gennova Biopharma, Dr Reddy’s Lab and Panacea Biotec.

After the meeting ended, the executives praised the government’s role in easing hurdles and said the discussions covered how India’s vaccine capacities can be enhanced.

“All over the world, countries will invest in vaccine manufacturing and India needs to stay ahead and we discussed how to do that together with the industry and the government… This is a great milestone. We were able to achieve it because of the vision of the Prime Minister and the industries working with the government,” said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.

During the meeting, Poonawalla’s father and SII managing director, Cyrus Poonawalla, appreciated the leadership of Modi and the way he has led the country, the government statement said.

“Had it not been for him and the health ministry, today India would not have been able to make a billion doses. When he came in November (last year) to the plant in Pune, I assured him. And, today he is very happy that our assurance has been fulfilled that we will make India self-sufficient, [and] like all other vaccines, at the lowest possible cost in the world… The Prime Minister went out of his way and made all the regulatory people move very fast… which is why we have been able to cover a huge population,” Cyrus Poonawalla said after the meeting.

Other than the vaccine manufacturers, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and junior health minister Bharati Pravin Pawar were present at the meeting.

Cadila healthcare chairman Pankaj Patel too thanked Modi. “One of the biggest factors in our scientists developing the first DNA vaccine is the Prime Minister. He encouraged us a lot since the beginning. He said that the government was with us and would support us for any of our needs. That is the reason we have been able to do it,” he said, adding that Modi also mentioned the vaccine at the UN, which was a matter of pride for the company.

Bharat Biotech’s Krishna Ella thanked the Prime Minister for having taken Covaxin. Biological E’s Mahima Datla commended Modi’s “vision that helped the country attain the vaccination milestone”, the government statement said.

While Gennova’s Sanjay Singh talked about the importance of innovation and backward integration in the field of vaccine development, Dr Reddy’s Labs’ Satish Reddy appreciated the collaboration between the government and industry. Panacea’s Rajesh Jain praised the government’s ceaseless role during the pandemic, the government statement said.

India is likely to become the second-largest manufacturer of Covid-19 vaccines by volume by the end of the year, experts said. India is likely to edge past United States to produce a little under 1.5 billion doses by December, second only to China, according to an October 21 projection by science analytics firm Airfinity.

The government is expected to allow companies to resume exports of Covid-19 vaccines, a step likely to significantly ease vaccine inequity that has left doses out of reach for many poorer nations, especially in Africa.

Experts said India must now focus on encouraging full vaccination. “Now, there is a need to reduce the gap between the two doses of Covishield — which is administered to a majority of the people — to ideally eight weeks. There is a huge gap between the people who have received the first dose and those who have received a second dose. A high complete vaccine coverage will prevent future surges in infections and deaths. This is especially necessary during the festive season because the people are out and about, which increases transmission,” said Dr Suneela Garg, professor in the department of community medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College and a member of the Lancet Commission on Covid-19 in India.