Serum Institute of India resumes COVAX exports; crosses 1 bn Covishield dose milestone

Serum Institute of India (SII) has resumed exports to the international vaccine sharing programme COVAX. The first batches of its Covishield COVID-19 vaccine left the SII manufacturing facility in Pune on Friday, for distribution to low- and middle-income countries.

SII's supply of doses via COVAX is expected to increase substantially into Q1 2022, explained the firm in an official statement.

The resumption of exports is linked to the pharma major surpassing its original target to produce 1 billion doses of Covishield by the end of this year. The firm stated that it has reached this milestone ahead of time thanks to rapid expansion of production capacity at its site in Pune.

"I want to thank our workforce for their superhuman efforts in achieving this major milestone, with 1billion doses of COVISHIELD now produced by SII. We started to invest at-risk in COVID-19 vaccine production back in March 2020 and Serum Institute colleagues have worked tirelessly ever since to get these life-saving doses to people," said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India

To bolster its COVID-19 vaccine output even further, SII will bring into production other vaccines under licence. These include Covovax, from US-based company Novavax.

Covovax had received its first Emergency Use Authorisations (EUAs) from regulators in Indonesia and the Philippines in November. Further regulatory reviews are pending for Covavax in India and with the World Health Organization. Novavax has also submitted several additional regulatory filings for its vaccine around the world.

"With these global collaborations and new COVID-19 vaccines such as COVOVAX entering our production lines, we can be more hopeful that WHO's target to vaccinate 70% of the world's population by the middle of next year can be met," added Poonawalla.

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