MUMBAI:
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of
Serum Institute of India (SII), exuded confidence in meeting the Centre’s goal of immunising all adults by yearend, while announcing that Covid-19 vaccine for children, Covavax, is readying for a February-March launch. The Pune-based company hopes to resume exports of its vaccine, Covishield to WHObacked global platform, Covax by November, he told TOI in an interview, on a day when India crossed a milestone of one billion vaccinations.
On ensuring supplies for a ‘booster’ for those who have taken both the shots, he said those who haven’t taken the first jab in India (or elsewhere) need to be prioritised.
“We will have enough doses available for a booster shot for the elderly, and those who need it. For the healthy and young population we can wait for a year or so before considering a booster dose, and first ensure that the rest of the population gets two doses’’, he said.
The country is in a good place with a buffer stock of three weeks, he said, adding vaccine stocks monthly have surpassed the rate of vaccination.
The share of Covishield licenced by AstraZeneca to SII, stands at over 85% in India immunisation programme.
“Other manufacturers like
Bharat Biotech are scaling up, while others like Zydus will add to overall vaccine security. I would not like to make any prediction in terms of specific numbers’’, he added.
Regarding resuming exports which are crucial for lower- and middle-income countries, he said the government and Serum are working to see if there are enough stocks, but exports could start by November. We had to pay damages of $100 m(on reneging and delaying export contracts). We hope to make profits now (through exports), with January maybe seeing larger exports. We plan to export Novavax’s vaccine, Covavax, next year if the domestic requirement is met, and
Sputnik Light once it has been approved by regulators’’, he said.
Poonawalla said the company’s production of the vaccine could go up to 240 million doses a month from around 220 million now. Earlier, the company was rolling out about 100-110 million doses per month. This was possible with meticulous planning, coordination and support from the government, he said. The advance order which gave us about Rs 1,500 crore helped us to scale up, he said.