Serum Institute Directed to Prioritise India's Needs, Says Adar Poonawalla, Urges Countries to be Patient

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII), on Sunday urged other countries to be patient as they wait for the supplies of COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, as the company has been directed to prioritise the needs of India. Apart from making efforts to meet the requirements of India, the company is also trying its best to balance the needs of the rest of the world, he added.

”Dear countries and governments, as you await #COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient, @SerumInstIndia has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best”, Poonawalla said in a tweet. On February 15, the World Health Organisation (WHO) listed two versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through COVAX. The vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.

India announced a gift of 2,00,000 doses of vaccine to the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made the announcement to gift the 2 lakh doses during his remarks at a UN Security Council open debate on the implementation of resolution 2532 (2020), noting the impact of COVID-19 globally and calling for the cessation of hostilities around the world to help combat the pandemic.

Indian government has cleared supply of 34.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 25 countries on a commercial basis till February 11 under the initiative “Vaccine Maitri”.

The government last month mandated that the external affairs ministry would oversee the export of the vaccine on a commercial basis to foreign countries and international organisations.

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