To meet the spiraling demand for vaccines to combat the fast spread of the Covid-19 infection in India and overseas, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has geared up to raise the output of COVISHIELD vaccines by 67% to 100 million doses a month from May.
The SII has set a target to increase the output from 60 million doses to 100 million per month, the Economic Times reported.
“The Serum Institute would boost manufacturing from May,” Chief executive Adar Poonawalla had told ET in an interview in January.
Currently, the SII manufactures COVISHIELD, the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford.
The Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer of vaccines, did not respond to queries of ET, the publication said in its report.
Meanwhile, India opened up its coronavirus inoculation programme to people above 45 on Thursday as infections surge, which will delay vaccine exports from the world’s biggest maker of the drug.
The country, with the most number of reported COVID-19 cases after the United States and Brazil, has so far injected 64 million doses and exported nearly as many. This has raised criticism at home as India’s per-capita vaccination figure is much lower than many countries.
The government has previously said that people over 45 can register for inoculation from April 1.
India initially focused on front-like workers, the elderly and those suffering from other health conditions, unlike some richer countries that have made all their adults eligible to get inoculated.
New Delhi says it is working towards that goal, and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted that there would be no vaccine shortage in the country as it opens up the vaccination programme.
“Centre to continually replenish states’ supplies,” he said on Twitter. “Avoid overstocking and understocking.”
India has already decided to delay big vaccine exports for now, including to the WHO-backed global vaccine alliance COVAX.
It is currently using the AstraZeneca vaccine and a shot developed at home by Bharat Biotech, which is struggling to step up supplies. India’s drug regulator is soon expected to approve Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
India has reported more than 12 million infections, including a big surge last month. Deaths stand at more than 162,400.
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