‘Swine flu vaccines were deliberately not produced’

Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, the chairman and managing director of Serum Institute of India, said on Wednesday that the death toll from swine flu in the state could have been reduced if the production of certain vaccines had not been deliberately stalled this year.

Maharashtra Governor and Chancellor of universities in the state, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, on Wednesday conferred the honorary D Litt (Honoris Causa) degree on Poonawalla at a convocation ceremony held at Sahyadri State Guest House in the city.

At the occasion, Poonawalla said, “A few years ago, we had successfully developed a low-cost vaccine for swine flu on the request of the then Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, the health ministry later dishonoured the agreement. So this time, none of four Indian companies deliberately produced vaccine for swine flu, which is spreading like an epidemic across the country,” Poonawalla said.

“The swine flu death toll would have been reduced if we had vaccines which we deliberately did not produced this time,” he added.

According to the state health ministry, an estimated 170 people died because of swine flu and 2,005 patients tested positive for the disease in the state since January. Health ministry officials have already declared that the stock of swine flu medicines is ‘limited’.

Minister for Higher and Technical and Medical Education Vinod Tawde, Additional Chief Secretary Medha Gadgil and Vice Chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Dr Arun Jamkar were also present at the event.

Poonawalla underlined that immunisation is the key to the prevention of many diseases.

“Yet, the rate of immunisation is recorded lower in India as compared to that in Bangladesh, Nepal and some sub-Saharan countries,” he said.

An official from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik (which conferred the degree) said, “This was not the right stage for Dr Poonawalla to bring out his grudges against the health ministry.”

But on his part, Rao, the Governor, said, “Dr Poonawalla made a great contribution to public health through the manufacturing of low-cost vaccines.”