Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covishield vaccine, clarified on Monday that it has been working closely with the Centre in the nation-wide vaccination drive against COVID-19 and endorsed a statement put out by the Union health ministry rejecting media reports that the government had not placed any fresh order for vaccines.
“We endorse this statement, and the authenticity of the information. We have been working closely with the Government of India for the past year and thank it for its support. We remain committed to ramping up our vaccine production to save every life we can,” the SII said in a tweet which also carried a web link to the statement issued by the health ministry.
We endorse this statement, & the authenticity of the information. We have been working closely with the Government of India for the past year & thank it for its support. We remain committed to ramping up our vaccine production to save every life we can. https://t.co/tLVPjOMp51
— SerumInstituteIndia (@SerumInstIndia) May 3, 2021
In a separate press release, SII CEP Adar Poonawalla sought to clarify that ramping up of vaccine production is not possible overnight.
“First of all, vaccine manufacturing is a specialised process, it's therefore not possible to ramp up production overnight. We also need to understand that the population of India is huge and to produce enough doses for all adults is not an easy task. Even the most advanced countries and companies are struggling in relatively smaller populations,” the statement said.
Media reports had earlier alleged that the last order placed with the two vaccine makers—100 million doses with SII and 20 million doses with Bharat Biotech—was in March. The health ministry, however, rejected those reports and said a full advance amount of Rs 1732.50 crore was released to SII on April 28 for 11 crore doses of Covishield vaccines.
“As on date, against the last order of 10 crore doses for supplies of Covishield vaccine, 8.744 crore doses have been delivered till 03.05.2021,” it said.
The ministry further said that a full advance amount of Rs 787.50 crore was released to Bharat Biotech on April 28 for five crore vaccine doses during May, June and July. “As on date against the last order of 02 crore doses for supplies of Covaxin vaccine, 0.8813 crore doses have been delivered till 03.05.2021,” it said.
According the ministry, the Centre has provided more than 16.54 crore vaccine doses to states/UTs free of cost till May 2. “More than 78 lakh doses are still available with the states/UTs to be administered. More than 56 lakh doses in addition will be received by the states/UTs in the next three days,” it further said.
