Can’t ramp up production overnight, says Poonawalla
NEW DELHI: With states scrambling to secure vaccines, Adar Poonawalla — whose firm is the main supplier of COVID vaccine in India — on Monday said his firm cannot ramp up production overnight as vaccine making is a specialised process.
Serum Institute of India (SII) has orders from the Government of India to supply 11 crore more doses over the next few months on top of 15 crore already supplied, he said in a statement. Another 11 crore doses will be supplied to states and private hospitals in the next few months, he said. He, however, did not give a timeline for supplying the vaccines. Pune-based SII can produce 6-7 crore doses a month and is reportedly planning to ramp up production to 10 crore by July.
This has led to state after state rushing to SII, which can meet only a small part of the demand.
Poonawalla, who had last week cited unprecedented “pressure and aggression” for him and his family temporarily leaving the country for the UK, said “everyone wants the vaccine to be available in the quickest possible time.”
“This is our endeavour too and we are making every effort to achieve that,” he said. “We shall work even harder and strengthen India’s fight against Covid-19.”
Serum is licensed to manufacture COVID shots from AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc. But so far, the government has approved only AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine for use. The government has also approved the homegrown Covaxin vaccine of Bharat Biotech. Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine too has been approved for emergency use. File complaint about threats: Maha govt tells Serum CEO
A Maharashtra minister on Monday said Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla should lodge a police complaint in connection with the alleged threats that he has received, and assured the state government will conduct an in-depth probe into it.
“Poonawalla should lodge a complaint giving details of threat and the phone number from where he got the call. We will conduct an in-depth probe into it,” Minister Shamburaje Desai told reporters.