Serum Institute Of India

Amid rising coronavirus cases, the Serum Institute of India has written a letter to the Union health ministry seeking the inclusion of its COVID-19 vaccine Covovax on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults, official sources said on Monday. The letter was written by Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Serum Institute of India (SII) on March 27, they said. Last month, COVID-19 Working Group headed by Dr N K Arora had also recommended to the health ministry inclusion of Covovax on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults who have been vaccinated with two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had on January 16 approved the market authorisation for Covovax for those who have been administered two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin. Also, Covovax has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The DCGI had approved Covovax for restricted use in ...

Drug firm Wockhardt plans to roll out two vaccines within a year from its UK-based facility as part of a tie-up with Serum Institute of India, a top company official said. Last year, a Wockhardt unit tied up with a subsidiary of Serum Institute of India to set up a vaccine manufacturing facility in Wrexham, North Wales (UK). "Serum has identified two vaccines and we plan to manufacture these products within the next 12 months after exhibit batches and regulatory approval is received," Wockhardt Managing Director and Global CEO Murtaza Khorakiwala said in an analyst call. Elaborating on the tie-up, he noted that the company has already concluded an agreement with Serum and as a result of that Wockhardt has received 10 million pounds as a contribution for reserving the manufacturing facility for 150 million doses per year of vaccine for 15 years. "This is 150 million doses per year for about a 15-year agreement. And in addition to a contract manufacturing, there is a joint venture ..

Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla has called for global harmonisation or regulatory standards and said that cooperation among multilateral organisations is a must for dealing with future outbreaks. Speaking during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023, he said he is optimistic about the cooperation. As several leaders here warned against any complacency on the Covid front, Poonawalla said, "We need to keep educating people and dispel vaccine hesitancy". Serum Institute of India (SII) emerged as one of the largest vaccine makers in the world during the pandemic. Poonawalla pitched for advancing vaccine equity and global harmonisation of regulatory standards to allow vaccine manufacturers to make a better real-time impact. "Today, we go through a WHO approval process, you don't want every individual country asking for their own process and clinical trials. We have to be able to accept one level of standard," he added. Poonawalla said he is hopeful th

Covovax is manufactured through technology transfer from Novavax

Experts say no current vaccine protects against sub-lineages of Omicron

Covovax can now be used as a heterologous booster dose for adults who have been administered two doses of Covishield or Covaxin

Amid a rise in Covid cases in some countries, Serum Institute of India has started supply of Covishield to the Centre free of cost with the first lot of 80 lakh doses set to be dispatched from Saturday, official sources said. Since the launch of the anti-Covid vaccination drive, SII has so far provided 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government. According to an official source, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, had written to Union Health Ministry mentioning that the Pune-based firm will provide two crore doses of Covishield vaccine worth Rs 410 crore to the Government of India free of cost. The Health Ministry has issued a consignee list for the supply of 80 lakh doses of Covishield which will be supplied by the company Saturday, an official source said.

Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Sunday lauded India's fight against the Covid pandemic, saying the government and the healthcare workers contributed largely to tackling the pandemic

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday lauded vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India and its CEO Adar Poonwalla for their contribution in the fight against COVID-19. He was speaking at the inauguration of Bharti Super Specialty Hospital at Bharti Vidyapeeth where Poonwalla was conferred with the first Dr Patangrao Kadam Memorial Award. "I am very happy we got the opportunity to felicitate Poonawalla. It is an opportunity to say thanks for saving us. The entire nation wants to thank you," he said. The vaccines provided by SII during the pandemic showed the country's strength to the world, Fadnavis said. He also hailed the Bharti Vidyapeeth and said Patangrao Kadam was a leader who created 190 institutes to provide quality education and created quality human resource. ' The event was also attended by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Adar Poonawalla was carrying forward the legacy of his fath

Serum Institute of India chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Sunday said its Covovax vaccine will get approval as a booster in the next 10 to 15 days, adding it works well against the Omicron variant of coronavirus. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event at Bharti Vidyapeeth University here, Poonawalla, when asked about states and districts not getting Covishield vaccines, said there are ample stocks with the Union government for supply. "Covovax will be approved as a booster in the next 10-15 days. It is actually the best booster because it works very well against Omicron, more than Covishield," said Poonawalla. He said everyone was looking at India, not just in terms of healthcare but because the country managed to take care of a huge and diverse population and also helped 70 to 80 nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. "This was all possible because of the leadership of our Central government, our state governments, healthcare workers, manufacturers, all of who

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has offered two crore doses of Covishield vaccine to the central government free of cost amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in some countries, official sources said on Wednesday. According to an official source, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Serum Institute, has written to the Health Ministry offering the doses worth Rs 410 crore free of cost. It is learnt that Singh has sought to know from the ministry how the delivery can be made. SII has so far provided more than 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government for the national immunisation programme. Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in some countries, including China and South Korea, the government has sounded an alert and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality. India has stepped its surveillance and genome sequencing of Covid positive samples. With only 27 per cent of the eligible adult population having taken the precaution do

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has sought the drug regulator's approval for market authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine Covovax as a booster dose for those aged 18 years and above who have been administered two doses of Covishield or Covaxin, official sources said on Thursday. Prakash Kumar Singh, director, government and regulatory affairs, SII, submitted a market authorisation application for the heterologous booster dose of Covovax to the drugs controller general of India (DCGI) on October 17. It has been learnt that the DCGI's office had raised a few queries, after which Singh submitted a reply, mentioning about the current emerging situation caused by a new coronavirus variant. Covovax was approved by the DCGI for a restricted emergency use in children aged seven to 11 years in June. The DCGI had approved Covovax for a restricted use in emergency situations in adults on December 28, 2021 and for those in the 12-17 age group, subject to certain conditions, on March 9. Cov

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Tuesday expressed concern over reports of a rising COVID-19 graph in China but said there is no need to panic as the vaccination coverage in India is excellent. Poonawalla's tweet came a day after the Union Health Ministry urged all states and UTs to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples to keep track of newer variants, if any, amid a spurt in cases in the US and China. "The news of rising COVID cases coming out of China is concerning, we need not panic given our excellent vaccination coverage and track record. We must continue to trust and follow the guidelines set by the Government of India and @MoHFW_INDIA," Poonawalla tweeted. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pune-based SII had collaborated with Oxford University and pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca for making the Covishield vaccine. In October, Pooanwalla said the SII stopped producing the vaccine in December 2021. Of the total stock available at that

The Pune-based vaccine producer's value has increased 20 per cent to Rs 2.2 trillion in the past one year

CEO Adar Poonawalla said Serum Institute of India stopped producing Covishield vaccine from December 2021 and of the total stock available at that time, about 100 million doses had already expired

Serum Institute of India (SII) had to defer HPV vaccine production by two years due to the focus on COVID, and will start supplying small quantities of the dose to the Indian government in early 2023, a top official has said. Exports will have to wait till 2024, its chief executive Adar Poonawalla told reporters here on Thursday evening, adding that the company has to build a scale of manufacturing to over 150 million for that. HPV vaccines prevent certain kinds of cervical cancer. SII is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer which rushed with the production of multiple COVID vaccines at its facilities located here once the shot was approved for use. "The HPV facility was used by the COVID vaccines during the pandemic. That's why we had to delay the larger launch to next year," Poonawalla said, speaking on the sidelines of an event. "We will be making a very small quantity and launching with the Indian government in the first quarter of next year. Followed by a capacity for 70

It's time to focus on routine immunisation: Mandaviya

Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, on Thursday said the vaccine manufacturer stopped the production of Covishield vaccine starting December 2021, and of the total stock available at that time, around 100 million doses had already got expired. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), he said booster vaccines have no demand as there is general lethargy among people and also because they are fed up with the pandemic. "Since December 2021, we stopped the production (of Covishield). We had a stock of a few hundred million doses at that time and of that, 100 million doses have already expired," said Poonawalla when asked about the update on the Covishield vaccine. He said the SII's vaccines are allowed to be mixed. "Now, Covovax should be allowed in two weeks. So I think they will and should probably have the policy to mix boosters. If WHO allowed it, then .

Multilateral organisations like the UN and the WTO should take it upon themselves to harmonise the certification of vaccines especially ahead of another pandemic as witnessed one induced by the COVID-19 virus that has badly hit the global economies, CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla has said. Making this clarion call at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore on Monday, Poonawalla said I'm proposing it (such a certification treaty)." "Multilateral organisations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation should take it upon themselves to harmonise the certification of vaccines," he told PTI on the sideline of the conference, adding that "the world needs it if we want to be prepared in the future". Responding to a question on lessons learned from COVID-19, Poonawalla was quick to acknowledge the challenges of having such a proposal given the concerns of world leaders. I will keep advocating for it (the proposal), though getting the world leaders

In a bid to counter the growing clamour among the G7 nations to enforce a price cap on Russian oil, Moscow told New Delhi it is willing to provide petroleum at even lower rates than before to India