Summary:
Pune: The Serum Institute of India (SII) will apply for emergency license of Covid-19 vaccine in the next two weeks, said chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters through virtual press conference minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to SII’s facility in Pune on Saturday, Poonawalla said, the vaccine, post-authorization, will initially be distributed in India and then to African countries.
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Pune: The Serum Institute of India (SII) will apply for emergency license of Covid-19 vaccine in the next two weeks, said chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters through virtual press conference minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to SII’s facility in Pune on Saturday, Poonawalla said, the vaccine, post-authorization, will initially be distributed in India and then to African countries.
“We are in process of applying for emergency licensing in the next two weeks.
We will have to wait and see when we get the authorisation,” said Poonawalla while responding to a question on Covishield vaccine’s distribution in the country.
“The vaccine will be distributed initially in India and then we will look at COVAX countries which are mainly in Africa.
The United Kingdom and European markets are being taken care of by AstraZeneca and Oxford.
If they need our help for scaling up production capacity, we are always there to support them.”
The SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has signed an agreement to manufacture the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.