COVID-19 Vaccine: Adar Poonawalla Says SII Ready With Stockpile of 40–50 Million Covishield Doses

Pune, December 28: In what could be termed as New Year gift, Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer, Serum Institute of India on Monday said 40-50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have already been stockpiled, adding that Covishield rollout is expected in January.

"We have 40-50 million doses of Covishield stockpiled. Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it will be down to the government to decide how much they can take and how fast. We will be producing around 300 million doses by July 2021," said Poonawalla while doing a media interaction via video conference.

"Initially, in one or two months the offtake will be slow. Once the logistics and everything work out well we can expect the rollout for Covishield in January," he said. Serum Institute to Produce 300 Million Doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford's COVID-19 Vaccine by July 2021, Says CEO Adar Poonawalla.

Asked whether there is any concern regarding COVID-19 vaccine getting approval, he said, "Regulators are evaluating the data...Lot of people keep raising issues. There are no concerns at all. 92 to 95 per cent vaccine efficiency is there. Emergency use of vaccine may come in the end of December or maybe in January in the UK and we are hoping the same in India as well. We should wait for some good news."

"India is a part of 'COVAX'. We will keep giving 50 per cent of everything we make to India and to COVAX at the same time. India has such a large population that we will probably end up giving the majority of those 50 million doses to India first," Poonawalla said.

He, however, mentioned that the first six months of 2021 will see a shortage of vaccines globally. "Nobody can help that. But we will see easing off by August-September 2021 as other vaccine manufactures also being able to supply," he added.

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