India likely to face vaccine crunch till July, says Serum CEO Adar Poonawalla

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that India is likely to face a vaccine crunch for next couple of months till the production capacity is increased from current 60-70 million to 100 million a month.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Poonawalla accepted that the authorities became complacent with the decline in Covid cases. “Everybody really felt that India had started to turn the tide on the pandemic,” he said, adding that “the authorities did not expect to confront a second wave back in January, when cases had started declining.”

Poonawalla recently flew away from the country to London after receiving unspecified threats from unnamed politicians and business figures demanding access to vaccines.

Poonawalla told the newspaper that he has been victimised very unfairly and wrongly, adding that he had not boosted capacity earlier because “there were no orders, we did not think we needed to make more than 1billion doses a year”.

Earlier on Saturday night, the Serum CEO confirmed that he would soon return to the country: “Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELD’s production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days.”

Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELD’s production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days.

— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 1, 2021