Reducing dose gap may help liquidate Covishield vaccine stocks faster

Liquidating stocks is critical for SII as it can store around 600-700 million doses at its site.

The Centre’s recent move to reduce the gap between two Covishield doses to 8-16 weeks from the earlier gap of 12-16 weeks may help liquidate vaccine stocks faster.

Covishield maker Serum Institute of India (SII) is sitting on 200-250 million doses of the vaccine at its Pune facility. The administration of Covishield at a reduced gap of 8 weeks has not started yet.

However, this would create a faster turnaround of stocks lying with the government and private hospitals, thereby leading to a liquidation of the inve­ntory lying with the company.

A source close to the developments told Business Standard