Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive officer of the Serum Institute of India, on Saturday asked if the government had the funds to procure coronavirus vaccines to inoculate the whole population. The Serum Institute of India is conducting Phase 3 trials of a vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University and British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
“Quick question: will the Government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year?” Poonawalla asked. “Because that is what the Ministry of Health needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle.”
Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine maker by the number of doses produced. Poonawalla said there was a need to plan and guide vaccine manufacturers both in India and abroad for the purposes of procurement and…