Union health Minister Harsh Vardhan has stated on various occasions that India is likely to get a vaccine against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year but Serum Institute’s CEO might reckon with it.

Adar Ponnawalla chief executive of Serum Institute of India, world’s largest vaccine producer has stated that there won’t be enough vaccine against the COVID contagion for everyone in the world till the end of 2024. He stated that ‘’it’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet’’.

The Pune based pharmaceutical giants firm has partnered with five international pharmaceutical firms including AstraZeneca and Novavax to develop a potential COVID-19 vaccine and has committed to produce 1 billion doses of which it has pledged to provide half to India. The CEO’s remarks came a day after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan stated a potential vaccine against coronavirus would be ready by the beginning of next year ‘’it may be ready by the first quarter of next year’’ he stated.

On Serum Institute’s word to produce billion doses Poonawalla stated that commitment far exceeded the capacity of vaccine producers ‘’I know the world wants to be optimistic on it but I have not heard of anyone coming even close to that right now’’. As a part of Serum Institute of India (SII) agreement with AstraZeneca it is aiming to produce doses that cost around $3 for 68 countries and under its agreement with Novavax, for 92 countries.

After the human trials of the Oxford vaccine resumed in UK late last week, Poonawalla tweeted ‘’as I’d mentioned earlier, we should not jump to conclusion until the trials are fully concluded. The recent chains of events are a clear example why we should not bias the process and should respect the process till the end’’.