Chairman of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter to pose a question to thr Ministry of Health on Saturday. The SII has partnered with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca for the manufacturing and distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in India.
He asked, "Quick question; will the government of India have 80,000 crores available, over the next one year?" Poonawalla asked in a tweet. He went on to add, "Because that's what @MoHFW_INDIA needs, to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle. @PMOIndia."
"I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution," Poonawalla said in another tweet about an hour later.
I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) September 26, 2020
Clinical trials for Covishield, the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca in collaboration with SII have begun in Mumbai's KEM and Nair hospitals. They are likely to begin at a state-run hospital in Pune sometime in the coming week.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) had earlier this month revoked its order suspending any new recruitment for phase-II and phase-III of the clinical trials of Covishield. This was done across the globe after one of the volunteers who received the vaccine experienced spinal inflammation.
"As I'd mentioned earlier, we should not jump to conclusions until the trials are fully concluded. The recent chain of events are a clear example why we should not bias the process and should respect the process till the end. Good news, @UniofOxford," Adar Poonawalla had said after the revocation of DGCI's order.
Following a brief period of examination, the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca received a go-ahead from authorities in the UK to resume clinical trials for Covishield.
The SII has, in fact, also partnered with Novavax for the manufacturing of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, NVXCoV2373.