Applaud PM's vision on providing vaccines to global community: Serum's Adar Poonawalla

NEW DELHI: Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India (SII), on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his speech at the UN General Assembly where he pledged to provide the

Covid-19 vaccine

to the global community.


Taking to Twitter, Poonawalla said that it was a proud moment for India and thanked PM Modi for his leadership and support.

"We share and applaud your vision @narendramodi ji, on providing vaccines to the global community. It is a proud moment for India, thank you for your leadership and support. It is clear that all your arrangements for India will take care of all needs for the Indian people," he wrote on Twitter, where he shared a video clip of PM Modi's

UNGA

speech.


At the UNGA, PM on Saturday promising the world that the nation's vaccine manufacturing capability will "help all humanity" in fighting the Covid-19

pandemic

while assuring global leaders whose worries about its availability has been a dominant concern.

"As the largest vaccine producing country of the world ... India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis," Modi said in his pre-recorded speech to the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly.

"India will also help all the countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities for the delivery of the vaccines," he added offering help with a crucial aspect of its delivery around the developing countries.

Vaccine manufacturers like the SII are manufacturing millions of doses of vaccines ahead of the completion of trials and approval process to be ready to ship at the green signal taking a huge financial risk.

A day before his praise for PM Modi, the CEO of SII which is producing the potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University, had asked if the government will have Rs 80,000 crore available to buy and distribute the vaccine.

"Quick question; will the government of India have 80,000 crores available, over the next one year? Because that's what @MoHFW_INDIAneeds, to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India," he had tweeted.

This is the next "challenge" we need to tackle, he said, also tagging the Prime Minister's office.


"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," Poonawalla added.

SII has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company

AstraZeneca

.

Earlier, SII had announced that it will make the Oxford vaccine available at USD 3 for low and middle-income countries including India.

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