Govt may need Rs 80,000 cr for COVID-19 vaccine in next 1 year: Adar Poonawalla

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, September 26

Adar Poonawalla, CEO and owner, Serum Institute of India, on Saturday in a tweet asked the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare how the Government of India planned to procure Rs 80,000 crore to distribute COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in India.

“Quick question; will the government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year? Because that’s what @MoHFW_INDIA needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle,” he wrote in a tweet.

“I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution,” he wrote in another tweet.

Serum Institute is currently conducting a phase 3 clinical trial of a vaccine co-developed by AstraZeneca and University of Oxford, of which the Pune-based company plans to manufacture one billion doses.

The company is in pact to produce another billion doses of a vaccine developed by Novavax, for which Poonawalla's firm will start phase 3 trials next month.