Fire In India’s Serum Institute COVID Vaccine Manufacturing Facility – CEO Pledges Vaccine Production Won’t Be Delayed
Major fire at Serum Institute Vaccine Complex in Pune, India

Five people have died in a major fire at the Serum Institute’s manufacturing facility, charged with producing India’s supply of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine –  just days after the country’s national vaccine campaign got underway.

Serum Institute Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla was quick to say that the fire at its main complex in Pune, would not affect its delivery of some one bilion doses of vaccines in 2021.

“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies,” Poonawalla said. ‘COVISHIELD’ is the branded name for the AstraZeneca vaccine being produced by the Serum Institute in India. The fire would mean delays in launching new products, he added however.

Even so, the huge billows of smoke pouring out of the buildng plainly visible on social media led observers to wonder if that optimistic forecast would hold up.  Along with supplying India’s domestic market, the Serum Institute has major contracts with other low- and middle-income countries in Africa and South-East Asia, as well as with the WHO co-sponsored COVAX global procurement facility – which has promised to start rolling out vaccines to countries worldwide in the first quarter of 2021.

The fire could have been caused by an electrical fault, according to government officials. India media reported that the fire had broken out in a part of the complex that was under construction.

 

The Serum Institute is producing approximately 50 million doses of COVISHIELD a month across multiple facilities in India: a number it plans to up to 100 million.

Additionally, the manufacturer is set to produce up to 50 million doses of the US’ Novavax candidate from April, if the vaccine, now in Phase 3 trials, is approved.

India began its COVID immunization campaign over the weekend, but the rollout saw lower turnout than expected with only around 50% of people registered to be vaccinated receiving their dose. Additionally, there is a lot of hesitancy among its health workforce.

Serum Institute vaccines figure heavily in the distribution timeline for the WHO co-sponsored COVAX facility’s commitment to distriute some 2 billion vaccine doses in 2021 (Gavi, 7 January 2021).

Image Credits: Twitter via https://en.gaonconnection.com/, WHO.

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