As Covid-19 Cases Rise, Serum Institute Plans To Begin Overseas Production Of Covishield Vaccine: Report

Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) is said to be looking at boosting the supply of Covishield COVID-19 vaccine by initiating production at other facilities outside of India, as it is presently struggling to meet the supply commitments, reports Livemint.

An announcement is expected to be made by the company in this regard in the next few days, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla was quoted as saying by The Times on Friday (30 April).

The development comes at a time when the demand for Covishield in India has skyrocketed with the surging fresh wave of COVID-19 cases and the opening up of the vaccination to those aged between 18 and 44 years.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that just last week, Poonawalla had also said that SII will be able to raise its monthly production to 100 million doses by July only, which is later than the earlier timeline of May end.

Poonawalla hopes to increase the production to as much as 2.5 to three billion doses a year within the next six months.