Serum Institute to apply for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine

New Delhi : The Serum Institute on Saturday announced that they will be applying for license to use their coronavirus vaccine for emergency use within two weeks. 

"As of now, we don't have anything in writing with the government of India on how many doses they will purchase but the indication is that it would be 300-400 million doses by July 2021," Adar Poonawala told reporters. "We are in the process of applying in the next two weeks for the emergency use," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Serum Institute to meet and review the development of coronavirus vaccine.

PM Modi began his three-city vaccine tour with a visit to pharma major Zydus Cadila's plant in Gujarat, then flew to Hyderabad where he visited Bharat BioTech, which is working on Covaxin, and finally proceeded to Pune where Serum Institute of India, which will produce the Oxford vaccine, is based.

"We are manufacturing 50-60 million doses per month. After January it will be 100 million doses," Poonawala said.

Earlier at the Serum Institute, PM Modi reviewed the progress of the Covishield vaccine being made there, speaking with scientists and touring the facility.

"Had a good interaction with the team at Serum Institute of India. They shared details about their progress so far on how they plan to further ramp up vaccine manufacturing. Also took a look at their manufacturing facility," PM Modi tweeted after his visit.