India To Get Most Of The 40-50 Million Doses Of Covid-19 Vaccine Stockpiled By Serum Institute

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine maker in terms of doses, has stockpiled around 40-50 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Covishield, reports Economic Times.

According to the report, India will initially get most of the vaccine shots stockpiled by the company as the exports of the Covishield would require the World Health Organisation's (WHO) pre-qualification, which is likely to take around a month after regulatory approval.

SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that the company expects to receive the emergency use approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the vaccine in the next few days. He said that the stockpiled doses of 'Covishield' are being augmented every week.

Poonawalla further said that the roll-out of the vaccine can be expected in January.

“We will get some good news this new year...All the data has been submitted and we must respect the process as regulators are evaluating data,” Poonawalla was quoted as saying.

“Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it will depend upon the government to decide how much they can take and how fast,” he added.

SII reportedly plans to manufacture 100 million doses by March 2021. After its third facility becomes operational in March, the company aims to increase the production to 300 million doses by July.