Will take 4-5 years until everyone gets COVID-19 vaccine, says Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla
Pune: Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, has said it will take four to five years until everyone gets the COVID-19 vaccine on this planet.
He told the Financial Times that pharmaceutical companies were not increasing production capacity quickly enough to vaccinate the global population in less time.
“It’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet,” said Poonawalla, who estimated that if the Covid-19 shot is a two-dose vaccine — such as measles or rotavirus — the world will need 15bn doses.
Based in the western Indian city of Pune, the family-run Serum Institute has partnered with five international pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca and Novavax, to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and committed to produce 1bn doses, of which it has pledged half to India. The company may also partner with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute to manufacture the Sputnik vaccine, reports the newspaper.
India is one of the nations in the world that has registered a high number of COVID-19 cases for the past several months.
The virus is believed to have originated from China.
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