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SII yet to resume Covishield manufacture
The Serum Institute of India (SII) is yet to resume the manufacture of Covishield after putting it on hold in December 2021 as 100 million doses of the vaccine have already expired, the Pune-based firm claimed
The Serum Institute of India (SII) is yet to resume the manufacture of Covishield after putting it on hold in December 2021 as 100 million doses of the vaccine have already expired, the Pune-based firm claimed.
Chief executive officer (CEO) of the SII, Adar Poonawalla, on Thursday told reporters in Pune that they had a few hundred million doses of Covishield by December 2021 out of which, 100 million have already expired. Poonawalla was speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) when he said that the SII expects Covovax to get approval from the Indian regulator in two weeks. The SII manufactures Covovax under a license from the developer of the vaccine, US-based Novavax. “Now, Covovax should be allowed in two weeks. I think they will and should probably have the policy to mix boosters. If the World Health Organisation (WHO) has allowed it, then maybe the Indian regulator will and should allow it. But again, boosters have no demand at the moment and there is a general lethargy. People are fed up of Covid, vaccines. To be honest, I am also fed up with it. We all are,” Poonawalla said.
Pune based SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has been the leading manufacturer of Covishield vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company, AstraZeneca.
Poonawalla said that people might take Covid vaccines and other shots together in the future.
“In India, there is no culture of taking flu shots as we see it in the West. We tried when we launched a few vaccines in 2010. During the H1NI pandemic in 2011, no one took it. Flu is not something that sounds scary to people. They just do not want to take it,” he said.
Meanwhile the SII CEO said that there has been a delay in the production of HPV vaccine. Recently, the SII launched India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer.
“The HPV facility was used for Covid vaccine production and hence, there is a delay. Initially, we will be producing the vaccine in small quantities, that is up to 70 million. In 2023, we will have a capacity of 20 million doses and we will supply it to the government of India (GoI). After that, we will hopefully get WHO approval and we will supply the vaccine to African and other countries. We will scale up the production to 150 million doses as majority of the supply will be to the Indian government,” said Poonawalla.
