The first batches of exported Covishield left SII’s Pune facility this morning
New Delhi:
The Serum Institute of Indian manufacturer Covishield has resumed vaccine exports for distribution to low- and middle-income countries under the COVAX global vaccine sharing scheme.
In a statement, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, said the world is largely dependent on low-priced, high-quality pharmaceuticals and vaccines that India normally exports. “We are delighted to be supporting the global immunization effort once again,” said Mr. Poonawalla.
The total number of doses of Covishield produced to date has surpassed the 1.25 billion mark, according to the Pune-headquartered company.
The first batches of Covishield marked for export left SII’s Pune facility this morning. The company expects its vaccine exports to increase significantly in the first quarter of 2022.
To further increase production of the COVID-19 vaccine, SII will launch other vaccines under license. These include Covovax, from US-based company Novavax, which received its first emergency use permits from regulators in Indonesia and the Philippines this month, SII said in today’s statement.
Other regulatory reviews are pending for Covovax in India and with the World Health Organization, and Novavax has also filed several additional regulatory filings for its vaccine around the world.
“I would like to thank our workforce for their extraordinary efforts in achieving this important milestone, with the 1 billion doses of Covishield now produced by SII. We began to venture into investing in producing the COVID-19 vaccine in March 2020 and Serum Institute colleagues said it is a critical time to start exporting again, for us, our partners in Covax and the low- and middle-income countries we support”.
The SII CEO also thanked the Indian company’s global partners including AstraZeneca, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO “for their patience and confidence in our ability to move in the right direction.” I.”
Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Covax facility-led vaccine alliance, said the resumption of supply from SII was an important development as it entered its busiest period for shipping. vaccines to participating economies.
“While Covax’s portfolio is now much more diversified than it was earlier this year when we received our first shipments of SII, Covishield remains an important product that has the potential to help us protect our products. hundreds of millions of people in the coming months,” said Dr. Berkley.
SII is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer in terms of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses), providing the world’s cheapest and WHO approved vaccines to 170 countries. It was established in 1966.
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