Serum re-starts Covishield production, seeks to despatch 6 mn Covovax doses

Initiates talks with private hospitals for dispatching existing Covovax stock; Conducts in-vitro studies on human blood samples for neutralising antibody titres against XBB in India

With only 146 sites conducting vaccinations in India and a few hundred vaccine shots administered every day, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has now restarted production of its Covid-19 vaccine Covishield. It also has an inventory of six million does of Covovax.

Only 441 vaccine doses were administered during the past 24 hours.

Speaking to Business Standard, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said, “We have restarted production of Covishield after stopping it about a year back. We will make two-three batches and stockpile 5-6 million doses of Covishield to supply to hospitals if anyone wants it. I understand some people are comfortable getting a Covishield shot as their third dose.”

Moreover, SII’s Covovax (the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine which it supplied to the US) received the regulator nod as a heterologous booster (or mix and match booster shot) two-three days back.

“We already have six million doses of Covovax available with us ready for dispatch. We have also done specific studies based on human blood samples for neutralising antibody titres against the Omicron and especially the XBB variant of Omicron in India. This vaccine works against these new variants, and the elderly should take precautionary shots,” he explained. These doses have a 6-9-month shelf life at present.

Poonawalla, however, added that there was negligible demand from private hospitals for vaccines. “In the past few months there have hardly been any orders from private hospitals. We keep hearing about vaccine shortages at various sites. It’s a bit odd, as unless people are willing to come forward and pay for their booster doses, the hospitals would not scale up procurement,” he said.

The demand for boosters has slumped in the US and EU as well, he admitted. SII has commitments to supply 5-10 million doses of Covovax later this year to the EU.

Poonawalla said Covovax (which is now available as a precaution shot on CoWIN) is priced at Rs 225 and the hospitals charge anything between Rs 100-150 to administer it. “The government has already done its job of covering people with two doses and also a third dose for a significant portion of the population. We do not expect it to buy any more vaccines,” he said, adding that SII has already initiated talks with private hospitals.

“We are asking private hospitals to place small orders to begin with,” he said.

India has already administered 2.2 billion vaccine doses – 952 million second dose and 228 million precautionary doses. Around 7,830 cases were reported in the past 24 hours. The daily positivity rate is 3.65 per cent now.

If every eligible person goes for a booster (children below 18 years are not eligible) then there is still room for a few million doses to be administered in India.