Covishield Will Still Be Available In March-April As Serum Institute Goes Ahead With Roadmap

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) which will be manufacturing and distributing the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in India is set to apply for the emergency use of the drug in India in the next few weeks.

Serum Institute of India chief executive Adar Ponnawala also confirmed that the Pune-based giant would be able to produce at least 100 million doses a month from early 2021 of Covishield, which was developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

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SII will be seeking emergency clearance for the vaccine that will be first administered to millions of frontline health workers in the first phase, followed by high-risk categories and to the general public in later stages.

The company says it is eying to make Covishield available in the open market by March-April.

According to Ponnawala, SII is manufacturing 50-60 million doses per month. After January it will be 100 million doses.

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"As of now we don't have anything in writing of how many doses the Government of India would purchase, but the indication is three to four hundred million doses by July 2021," Poonawalla said recently.

SII is going ahead with its roadmap for vaccine delivery even as it is fighting back against allegations of a participant suffering an adverse effect from the trials.

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Development amid volunteer complaints

A 40-year old volunteer, who works as a business consultant had alleged that he had suffered severe neurological health complications after being vaccinated with Covidshield shot.

He had sought a compensation of Rs 5 crore and that the? testing, manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine be stopped immediately.

However, the SII rejected the charges as "malicious and misconceived" and said it will seek damages in excess of Rs 100 crore.

Though the claim is being investigated by the Drugs Controller General of India and the institutional ethics committee, a senior ICMR official said that the preliminary assessment has not indicated any causal link between the alleged adverse events shown by the volunteer and the 'Covishield' vaccine.

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"The volunteer was a healthy male prior to being vaccinated. He was tested only for coronavirus infection before being vaccinated with Covishield. He was found negative for coronavirus infection.

No other medical tests were done to ascertain his health condition," his lawyer said.