A day after a fire broke out at the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, killing five people, its CEO Adar Poonawalla said the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine will not be affected due to the incident.
"The fire has no impact on the production of the 'Covishield' vaccine and no damage has occurred to the existing stock either... No actual vaccine was being made at that facility (where the fire broke out). The extent of damages is more than Rs 1,000 crore," Poonawalla was quoted as saying, while addressing a joint press conference with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Inquiry Underway
CM Thackeray told the media that an inquiry is being conducted into the incident. "Unless the investigation report comes in, there can not be any conclusion about it,” he said.
“... Fortunately, the site where vaccine is manufactured and stored, isn’t affected. I’m informed by Adar and Cyrus (Poonawalla) that COVID vaccine is manufactured at a distance from the fire site.”Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, as quoted by ANI
Earlier on Friday, SII, in a statement to news agency ANI, said the company has suffered financial losses, and that the production of BCG and rota vaccines will be affected in the future.
The Serum Institute of India is manufacturing the coronavirus vaccine, 'Covishield', that was developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca. The vaccine was given emergency use approval by India's top drug regulator earlier in January, and was rolled out on 16 January.
(With inputs from ANI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)