Exports of Covishield allowed to all countries, clarifies Adar Poonawalla
Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India will issue a joint statement to clarify a few points as since Sunday the two vaccine makers appear to be at loggerheads.
Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Tuesday said exports of its vaccine, Covishield, which became one of the first Covid-19 vaccines in India to get restricted emergency-use approval, are permitted to all countries. Earlier it was reported that Pune’s SII got the approval on the condition that it will not export its shots as of now.
The Associated Press reported that Poonawalla said his company has been barred from selling vaccines on the private market.
Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine maker by the number of doses produced in a year. As it tied up with Astrazeneca and Oxford University to conduct trials in India and to produce the vaccines in India, several south Asian countries have shown interest in Covaxin. In November, an MoU was signed between the Bangladesh health ministry, Serum Institute and Bangladesh’s Beximco Pharmaceuticals according to which SII would provide three crore doses to Bangladesh.
Demand for SII’s vaccine being manufactured in India is not only limited to the neighbouring countries, as the vaccine is likely to be cheaper than its global competitors. Global vaccine alliance Gavi has collaborated with Serum Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to deliver up to an additional 100 million doses of vaccines, once proved effective, to low- and middle-income countries, as part of the Gavi-COVAX Advance Market Commitment.
Hence, the approval of the vaccine for restricted emergency use is good news for the international market as well but reports that India has barred SII to export its vaccines led to confusion.
SII is also part of another vaccine project — CoV2373 — in collaboration with Novavax.
Serum Institute versus Bharat Biotech
After both the companies got a go-ahead for restricted, emergency use in India, apparent competition between the two vaccine candidates mounted as many questioned the efficacy of Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, Covaxin, which is still undergoing trial. AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria said India will use Covishield/Oxford vaccine as the primary vaccine and Bharat Biotech’s vaccine will be a back-up option. Also, Bharat Biotech’s vaccine may be more potential against new Coronavirus mutant, it was said.
In an interview, Adar Poonawalla reportedly said only three vaccines in the world have passed all scientific evaluations — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-Astrazeneca. “...others were safe, ‘safe like water’,” he was quoted. Bharat Biotech chairman Krishna Ella did not shrug off the criticism. He pointed out the trial error that Astrazeneca did in September and questioned why Covaxin would be considered as the back-up vaccine.
In this backdrop, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech will issue a joint statement clearing up “any recent miscommunication with regards to Bharat Biotech will be made”, Poonawalla said.