Vaccine working on new variants next challenge: SII CEO Adar Poonawalla

'We are delivering 220 million doses a month, and almost everything is being consumed', said Poonawalla

Having supplied more than 90 per cent of India’s vaccine doses, Serum Institute of India (SII) played a pivotal role in ensuring the country reached the milestone of 1 billion jabs. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla tells Sohini Das that India now has 3-4 weeks’ buffer stock, and exports will pick up in January. Edited excerpts:

You are supplying over 200 million doses a month. How did you plan the scale up?

We had taken a lot of risk and planned our execution in early 2020. The fruits of that labour are finally showing. All the other vaccine manufacturers will also scale up. Sometimes with different technologies it takes a bit longer. That is why we chose certain technologies that would be easier to scale up.

Which pipeline products did you sacrifice to make Covid-19 vaccines?

Initially, we announced that we would make 100 million doses a month, for which we had to spend a lot of money, had to raise money and put in some from our own pockets... When the second wave hit, the Government of India and I worked very closely and with their financial support in the form of advances, we re-jigged a lot of other facilities dedicated for other vaccines — new monoclonals, new vaccines, etc. — which I was going to launch. We made sacrifices so that we could put our entire focus on Covishield. Covishield was the licensed vaccine and the need of the hour.

Under (Narendra) Modiji’s leadership and vision, we did that and thanks to his help and support in getting everyone to work together that we were able to achieve this huge level of 220 million doses a month, which I never thought was possible.

Are we consuming the entire monthly vaccine production? Does India have a buffer stock?

We are delivering 220 million doses a month, and almost everything is being consumed. There is a 2-3-week buffer between the stocks and the actual consumption. It is nice to have at least a month’s buffer in case there is a delivery delay in the future. The government is in a very secure position today, where you have got weeks of extra buffer versus the vaccination rate now.

All Indian vaccine manufacturers put together are making slightly more than the current demand. The total Indian vaccine manufacturing capacity is more than what we are consuming.

Should this lead to opening up of commercial exports soon?

Exports will happen in November and December and possibly in small quantities in October as well. It will really pick up in January 2022. We may still see exports of 20-30 million doses in the November-December period.

The lower and middle income countries, especially in Africa, have not got any vaccines. Only 3 per cent of their population is covered at the moment. India needs and wants to help these countries, and we will get back to that very soon.

What next for SII?

I want to fulfil all commitments to my partners and countries. Second, our Covovax (Novavax candidate) is in trials for children. So, there will be a solution even for children below 12. We already have two good vaccines in India for children, and would like to contribute to that fight.

Beyond Covid-19, we have so many new vaccines — for malaria, dengue, HPV — which we have delayed and we will launch after two years when Covid-19 is over. Around 2023-24 will be when we can launch these. We have to wait responsibly till then. We want to make sure that the capacity for Covid-19 vaccines is there till the time the pandemic is properly behind us.

What challenges lie ahead?

The next challenge is to ensure these vaccines work against the new variants that will come about. We may make different and new vaccines for dealing with the new variants. That could be a challenge and we may need to rely on the scientists to look at it. I am having discussions with our partners and in-house. The other challenge will be to ensure a stable global supply chain of raw materials for vaccine manufacturers. My gut feeling is that it is not yet addressed to the fullest. We need supply security on that.

The third challenge is of vaccine certificates — acceptance of all vaccines that are approved by WHO must and should happen. Else, we are going to be harassing travellers for no reason.