Nod for Covid vaccine in the next few days: Serum Institute's Poonawalla

SII has stockpiled 40-50 mn doses and is adding more every week. Most of these will come to India, as exporting would require fulfilling WHO's pre-qualification procedures

Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume, is expecting emergency use authorisation for its Covid antidote in a few days, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer (CEO), told reporters on Monday.

Poonawalla said Covishield, the vaccine of Oxford-Astra Zeneca, with which SII has an alliance, was likely to get emergency use approval in the UK in a few days and could also secure the regulator’s nod simultaneously in India.

“We will get some good news in this new year ... All the data has been submitted and we must respect the process as regulators are evaluating the data.” 

Pune-based