E-Paper
Look forward to your leadership: Serum CEO Adar Poonawalla's tweet for Mansukh Mandaviya
Two days before the cabinet reshuffle, Mansukh Manadviya visited the Pune facility of the Serum Institute of India and interacted with Adar Poonawalla.
Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the world's largest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, on Thursday congratulated new health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and said his company is looking forward to the new health minister's leadership, navigating through the Covid-19 pandemic. "It was a pleasure interacting with you during your visit," Poonawalla wrote, posting a photo of Mansukh Madviya's recent visit to the Pune facility of vaccine firm.
In a major reshuffle, several key ministers of the Modi Cabinet, including former health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, were dropped on Wednesday as new ministers took their oath on the same day. The axing of Dr Harsh Vardhan has triggered a debate whether the move is an indirect statement on the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Congress criticised the decision and said the former health minister has been made a scapegoat. Replacing Dr Harsh Vardhan with Mansukh Mandaviya who was in charge of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers and the ministry of ports and shipping and waterways has also triggered controversies as old tweets purportedly by the minister have now been dug out on social media platforms.
Also Read: Cabinet reshuffle | Here’s what new ministers said after PM Modi’s reset
Having taken charge amid the ongoing second wave and the looming threats of a third wave of the pandemic, Mansukh Mandaviya's primary challenge will be to pace up vaccination across the country. As India has largely been dependant on Covishield, the vaccine manufactured by Adar Poonawalla's Serum Institute of India, continuous coordination with the vaccine manufacturer will be crucial.
Two days before the Cabinet was reshuffled, Mansukh Mandaviya, as evident from Serum CEO's tweet, visited the Pune facility of Serum and held a detailed discussion with Adar Poonawalla to understand the challenges of vaccine production.
Pune's Serum Institute has been supplying Covishield at a discounted price to the government since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January. While Serum is looking at working on its new Covid-19 vaccine Covavax, it is also expected to accelerate vaccine production by several notches.
With former health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan too, Serum shared a close relationship. Before the Covid-19 pamdemic, in 2019, Harsh Vardhan had inaugurated Serum Instiute of India's Manjri plant. In 2020, Dr Vardhan inaugurated the country's first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, developed by Serum.
