Adar Poonawalla Aggression over Covid vaccines overwhelming, says Adar Poonawalla hinting to start producing in Britain
London: Amid India's catastrophic Covid19 crisis and demand for vaccines, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday said he was under pressure and aggression over vaccines is overwhelming. He also hinted at starting production outside India in a country like Britain.
In an interview to The Times London, he spoke about the pressures he was under over the production of COVID-19 vaccines to meet the demand and also mentioned threatening calls from rich and powerful.
Poonawalla said: “The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It’s overwhelming." SII is producing Covishield - the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
"I'm staying here (London) for an extended time because I don't want to go back to that situation. Everything falls on my shoulders but I can't do it alone...I don't want to be in a situation where you are just trying to do your job, and just because you can't supply the needs of X, Y or Z you really don't want to guess what they are going to do," Poonawalla told the British newspaper.
Reports said under pressure he chose to fly into London to be with his wife and children. He has already been provided with 'Y'' category security by the Indian government.
"Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them," Poonawalla said.
Hinting that he could start producing outside India and the UK can be one of the production bases, he said: "There's going to be an announcement in the next few days"
"We're really gasping for all the help we can get," Mr Poonawalla said adding that "I don't think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad."
Serum Institute earlier came under criticism after it announced the pricing of its Covishield vaccine to the states for the 18 to 45 age group at Rs. 400 a shot, which is way above the Rs.150 price offered to the Centre.
The revised pricing has provoked anger among many and opposition leaders as well as social media users have demanded "One vaccine one price".
On Wednesday, the Serum Institute announced a 25 per cent reduction in price for the states and will now offer Covishiled at Rs. 300 instead of Rs. 400.
"As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @SerumInstIndia, I hereby reduce the price to the states from Rs.400 to Rs.300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives," Poonawalla tweeted.
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