World’s No.1 shot-maker seeks cash
Restrictions on exporting its Covid vaccines have left India’s Serum Institute needing financial help from the government, its CEO said, with the world’s largest jab manufacturer under pressure at home from soaring cases.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last month put the brakes on exports of AstraZeneca jabs made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) as the nation of 1.3 billion people experienced an alarming new wave of infections.
The pressure has meant production capacity at SII is “very stressed, to put it quite frankly”, said the firm’s CEO, Adar Poonawalla.
“The globe needs this vaccine but we are prioritising the needs of India at the moment and we are still short of being able to supply ... to every Indian that needs it.”
The company now requires additional funding of 30 billion rupees (12.7 billion baht) to ramp up capacity and has asked the government for financial help, he added.
“This was never budgeted or planned initially because we were supposed to export and get the funding from export countries but now that that is not happening, we have to find other innovative ways to build our capacity,” he said.
SII, which produces over two million doses of Covishield — the local name for the AstraZeneca vaccine — a day, is providing the jab at a subsidised rate of around 150 rupees to India, significantly less than what it charges for exports.
The company has seen its profile soar since the pandemic began, with several countries clamouring to buy its vaccine. It has also struck a deal to supply 200 million doses to Covax, a World Health Organization-backed effort to procure and distribute inoculations to poor countries.
India recorded more than 100,000 cases in a single day for the first time on Monday.