Raw material shortage may affect scaling up of Covishield production

Last week, Adar Poonawalla had said on a World Bank panel that a US law blocking the export of key items like bags and filters will likely cause "serious bottlenecks" in vaccine production

The shortage of raw materials may affect the scaling up of the production of the Oxford-Astra­Ze­neca (Covishield) vaccine by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII). 

Last week, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII, had said on a World Bank panel that a US law blocking the export of key items like bags and filters will likely cause “serious bottlenecks” in vaccine production.

SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume, is currently producing around 67-70 million doses of Covishield vaccine per month. The biotechnology firm said that while the shortage of raw materials will not affect production at present, it