SII CEO Adar Poonawalla Says Exports of Vaccines Permitted to All Countries, Issues Clarification

Clarifying his previous statements, Adar Poonawalla tweeted saying exports of vaccines are permitted to all countries and a public statement regarding the same will be issued soon.

A day after Adar Poonawalla, the head of Serum Institute of India, said India will not allow the export of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for several months, the CEO clarified his statements on Tuesday. Clearing the air, Poonawalla took to Twitter and said exports of vaccines will be permitted to all countries. He also said that a joint public statement will be issued soon to clear up any miscommunication with regard to Bharat Biotech.

In a tweet, he said, ”I would like to clarify two matters; as there is confusion in the public domain, exports of vaccines are permitted to all countries and a joint public statement clearing up any recent miscommunication with regards to Bharat Biotech will be made”.

I would like to clarify two matters; as there is confusion in the public domain, exports of vaccines are permitted to all countries and a joint public statement clearing up any recent miscommunication with regards to Bharat Biotech will be made.

— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) January 5, 2021

Poonawalla had earlier said that Covishield’s emergency use approval was granted on the condition that the company does not export the shots to ensure enough stockpile for India.

Notably, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, called Covishield in India, is being produced by the Pune-based, The Serum Institute of India. SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations.

CEO Poonawalla said his company is currently producing 50 to 60 million doses of Covishield per month, and production will be scaled up to 100 million doses a month after January or February. The first 100 million doses of the vaccine will be sold to the Indian government at a ‘special price’ of Rs 200 per dose, and in the private market at Rs 1,000 per dose.

In November last year, British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca confirmed that its vaccine was 90% effective in preventing the deadly coronavirus and no hospitalisations or severe cases of the disease were reported in participants volunteering for the trials.