Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on 18th May said that the company has never exported vaccines at the cost of the people in the country and they remain committed to do everything they can, in support of the vaccination drive in India.

SII (Serum Institute of India) said in a statement that-

“We would like to make it clear that we have never exported vaccines at the cost of the Indian citizens and remain committed to do everything we can in the support of the vaccination drive in the country.”

The COVID-19 vaccination drive had started successfully and the number of daily cases recorded were at an all-time low. At that stage, most people, including health experts believed that India was fighting well against the wave of the pandemic.

SII in January 2021 presented that, the company had a large stockpile of vaccine dosage. The Institute also said that the country’s COVID-19 vaccination drive cannot be completed in two or three months as India has a huge population which makes it hard to complete the vaccine drive in the suggested time frame.

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Reverting back to the criticism of the decision of the government and Indian manufacturers, including the SII, to export the vaccines, the institute said that it needed to consider certain factors before jumping to any conclusion.

Adding to this, the SII said in the defend that-

“We have been working with the government tirelessly to do our best for humanity and will continue in the same spirit. This is the time for all of us to unite and work together to defeat the pandemic.”

Supporting this statement, the CEO Poonawalla said that-

“The government extended support wherever possible during this period. That’s the spirit that had initially led to cooperation between countries when the virus first emerged in the beginning of 2020. The cooperation between countries also forms the basis for us getting access to technology and aid for healthcare. Today, it is this reciprocity, where India has helped other countries with the supply of HCQ and vaccine exports, which has in turn led to support from other countries.”

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SII also pressurized on the fact that we must also understand that this pandemic is not limited by geographic or political boundaries. We will not be safe till everyone globally is able to defeat this virus at a global scale. Furthermore, they said that, ‘as part of our global alliances, we also had commitments to COVAX, so that they could distribute the vaccines globally to end the pandemic.’

They further concluded the discussion on a note that read-

“The SII has delivered more than 200 million doses though we received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), two months after the U.S. pharmacy companies. If we look at total doses produced and delivered, we rank amongst the top three in the world. We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India. We also hope to start delivering to COVAX and other countries by the end of this year.”