Will reserve enough vaccine doses for Parsis: Poonawalla

July 27, 2020 13:00

Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India

"More than enough" doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be reserved for the Parsi community, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of the vaccine's local manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII), has said.

Poonawalla, however, did not specify the quantity of the doses that will be kept for the community, which is grappling with shrinking population. Replying to producer Ronnie Screwvala on Twitter, Poonawalla on Sunday said, "Yes @RonnieScrewvala, we will keep more than enough for the community. Our production capacity of just one day will be enough to cover every Parsi on the planet...given the size of our community." Srewvala in his tweet, wherein he had tagged Poonawalla, said, "On a lighter note, Since Parsi's are to be Extinct race (Though avg age of Parsi's show otherwise) there is a lobby that as the vaccine does come in there will be a special quotaunder saving from extinction race..& why not if a Parsi is at the forefront of it."

Poonawalla last week said the company aims to manufacture 300 million to 400 million doses by the year-end, following the success of initial and licensure trials. He said as part of the agreement with AstraZeneca, SII can manufacture one billion doses for India and nearly 70 low and middle income countries. There are no challenges in manufacturing of the vaccine doses and the company will be starting by making 60 to 70 million doses per day, he said. -- PTI

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