Covid: SII chief doubts if vaxccine drive can cover all adults by end of year

PUNE: Serum Institute of India (SII) chairman and MD Cyrus Poonawalla on Friday raised doubts about the government’s claims of vaccinating all above 18 by the end of this year and making available 45 crore doses by September. He also said mixing of two different vaccines would not be advisable.
“Politicians often bluff. Producing 10 crore doses a month is not an easy task,” he said while replying to a question on the vaccination and dose availability claims.
Poonawalla praised the Centre for easing bureaucratic approvals and paving the way for faster manufacturing of the vaccines, but said the ban on export of vaccines must be relaxed. He recalled how industries used to face hardships in securing permissions and the harassment from bureaucrats 50 years ago.
“The Modi government has made a good reform in terms of licencing of drugs. This has helped in quick manufacturing of the Covid vaccine. But the ban on export of vaccines was very bad. My son asked me not to speak about it. Exports should start. Nearly 150-170 countries need the Covid vaccines and we are not able to give them,” he said.
Poonawalla was speaking to reporters after he was conferred with the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak award by the Tilak Smarak Trust in Pune on Friday. Deepak Tilak, great grandson of Lokmanya Tilak, and former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde shared the dais.
Poonawalla said no company in the world has been able to supply 10-12 crore doses in a month. “We could do it because we had made advance preparations for it and had made an investment worth crores of rupees so that we could supply around 110-120 crore doses per year. These numbers may help you to calculate. Other companies can also chip in by providing one or two crore doses per month, which would help increase India's total immunization potential,” he said.
On the vaccine cocktail, Poonawalla said, “It is very wrong to encourage mixing of two different vaccines. It is a risky decision and a waste of time. If one vaccine is working, why should we mix it up unnecessarily and create complications? This should be completely discouraged.”
Poonawalla also advised the need for a booster dose after a gap of six months post full vaccination. However, he felt that the gap between the first two doses should not have been extended to three months as done by "Modi government" and a gap of two months was better.
Replying to a question on the launch of Novovax, Poonawalla said, “Unless we get a licence to launch Novovax, we cannot launch the vaccine. The parent US company has got some issues with the FDA of the country, which should be sorted by October-end. Once they get the licence, we would. There is some effort to get the licence before the parent company but that is an uphill task.”
Poonawalla said he did not agree with the idea of introducing lockdowns. “There may be more cases in the beginning if a lockdown is not imposed, but then herd immunity may gradually develop in such a scenario. Herd immunity may be preferred to a lockdown because the Covid death rate is very low,” he said.
On the losses faced by SII for providing Covishield at a lower cost, Poonawalla said the company has lost a huge amount in terms of profit, but not from making the vaccine. “Take for example the measles vaccine, which we are providing at a cost of Rs 8-10 per dose to the government of India whereas the same is given by foreign countries to us at Rs 50 per dose. That answers the sacrifice that the Poonawallas are making to protect the Indian population,” he said.
Responding to a question on the “threats” that the family had to face earlier this year, Poonawalla said the issue was blown out of proportion. “There was no reason for people to exaggerate that my son had to leave the country because of that. It was the annual summer vacation which he went for,” he said.