'Never exported COVID vaccines at the cost of Indians': SII's Poonawalla issues statement

Amidst the noise over India's Vaccine Maitri initiative, which has been lauded by the global community, the Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday put out a statement clearing the doubts over the shortage of vaccines being linked to its exports. CEO Adar Poonawalla, in his statement, has reiterated that that SII, which manufactures COVISHIELD, has never exported vaccines at the cost of people in India and that it remains committed to doing everything in support of India's immunization drive.

Making an important note, Poonwalla has also highlighted that India is amongst the two most populous countries in the world, asserting that the vaccination drive for such a large population drive cannot be completed within 2-3 months. Poonawalla's statement also comes at a time when the Health Ministry has increased the gap between two COVISHIELD doses to 84 doses, which the Opposition has used to attack the Centre, attributing to the move to the alleged shortage of vaccines.

"We must also understand that this pandemic is not limited by geographic or political boundaries. We will not be safe till everyone globally is able to defeat this virus at a global scale. Further, as part of our global alliances, we also had commitments to COVAX, so that they could distribute the vaccines globally to end the pandemic," the SII statement read. 

As per the pact which included funding to support manufacturing increase, the SII is contracted to provide COVAX with the SII-licensed and manufactured AstraZeneca (AZ)-Oxford vaccine (known as COVISHIELD) to 64 lower-income economies participating in the Gavi COVAX AMC (including India), alongside its commitments to the Government of India, the WHO had said.

Notably, the WHO has also reminded the Serum Institute of its delivery commitments to COVAX. During a daily virtual press briefing on Monday, the World Health Organisation Director-General said that the surge in COVID-19 cases around the world has compromised the global vaccine supply and there is already a shortfall of 190 million doses to COVAX by the end of June. Once the devastating outbreak in India recedes, we also need the Serum Institute of India to get back on track and catch up on its delivery commitments to COVAX, WHO said.

Moreover, Poonawalla pointed out that SII was granted the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to produce COVID-19 vaccines two months after the pharma companies in US had received approval, and has still delivered more than 200 million doses. Highlighting the same, Poonawalla said, "If we look total doses produced and delivered, we rank amongst the top three in the world. We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India. We also hope to start delivering to COVAX and other countries by the end of this year."

According to Health Ministry's data, the total vaccine doses administered so far stand at 18,44,53,149. In addition, over 15,10,418 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, as per the data at 8 am on Tuesday.