Pune: Vaccine maker ‘Serum Institute of India’ (SII) is hoping to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by the year-end. The vaccine maker said it is focusing on a ‘good and safe’ product and is not in a ‘rush’. This information was provided Tuesday by the company’s CEO Adar Poonawalla. He was speaking during the launch of ‘Compact XL’, a compact diagnostics machine by ‘MyLab Discovery Solutions’.
Not rushing for vaccine
Poonawalla took questions about the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in India. He said by the end of 2020, the SII is hoping to have a vaccine.
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“End of the year, we are hoping to have a vaccine. So we will discuss about it once phase three trials are conducted. Recently, there was news about another vaccine candidate which was being rushed. We do not want to rush anything. We want to emphasis on safety and efficacy. Once we are confident of good and safe vaccine, we will announce. However, that is still six months away from now,” Poonawalla said.
Enough testing not being done
He further said that till the vaccine comes, testing is the key and that is why SII has invested in ‘MyLabs’. “If you test, isolate and segregate, we can manage the situation till the good cure or vaccine comes around,” asserted Poonawalla.
‘SII’ has invested over Rs 100 crore in ‘MyLabs’, a Pune-based molecular diagnostics firm.
Poonawalla lamented that India is not testing enough. He added that Indian test manufacturers including ‘MyLabs’ are picking up the production capacity.
“There is a fear that what will happen if the number of positive patients increases. I would like to say that there is no harm if the number increases as it will help us detect people,” Poonawalla pointed out.
Export of test kits
Poonawalla also sought permission to allow export of the test kits. “We have enough capacity in manufacturing testing kits. ‘MyLab’ can produce two million kits per week. If there is not that much demand in India allow us to export. We have enough buffer stock for India readily available if there is more outbreak,” he added.
