New Delhi: Serum Institue of India (SII) on Tuesday said the company never exported vaccines at the cost of people in India. This comes amidst the debate over the shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and export of vaccines from India. The company released a statement where it mentioned that the Serum Institute is committed to the country’s vaccination programme.
Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin were the first two COVID-19 vaccines to be granted approval in India in January for use in country’s vaccination programme.
Serum Institute says it has delivered more than 200 million doses.
SII, in a statement, also explained its rationale for exporting Covishield vaccines and said that the company had a large stockpile of vaccine doses in January 2021, when India’s vaccination drive had just started. “At that stage, most people including health experts believed that India was turning the tide on the pandemic.”
“Around the same time, many other countries in the world were facing an acute crisis and were in desperate need of help. Our government extended support wherever possible during this period. It is this spirit that had initially led to cooperation between countries when the virus first emerged in the beginning of 2020,” the statement said.
SII has said it has delivered more than 200 million doses, even though they received EUA two months after the US pharma companies.
“If we look at total doses produced and delivered, we rank amongst the top three in the world.” the company has said. “We would like to reiterate that we have never exported vaccines at the cost of the people in India and remain committed to do everything we can in the support of the vaccination drive in the country.”