Vaccine crisis: Production pressure on Serum Institute, Rs 3,000 crore needed to increase capacity

New delhi date. Thursday, April 8, 2021

British and Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has issued a legal notice to the Indian vaccine maker Serum Institute amid a crisis over vaccine supply. The reason behind issuing this notice is the delay in the supply of vaccines.

The Serum Institute, on the other hand, has sought a grant of Rs 3,000 crore from the Government of India to double the production of Covishield dose of AstraZeneca vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine is sold in India by the Serum Institute under the name Covishield.

"Rising demand in India is putting a huge strain on our production capacity," Serum CEO Adar Poonawala told a channel. We need Rs 3,000 crore to increase vaccine production.

We are providing vaccines in the Indian market at Rs 150 to Rs 160. While its average price is 1500 rupees. At the request of the Modi government, we are providing vaccines at cheap rates. It is not that we are not making a profit but we need to increase the profit margin. So that this amount can be invested for vaccine production.

"Three thousand crore rupees is not a small amount," he said. We have already invested thousands of crores. Now we need to look at a new option to increase production capacity. We expect to make 110 million doses of the vaccine per month from June. The company is currently making 20 lakh doses a day. Has exported 60 million doses to other countries.