Covovax for adults in October: SII CEO Adar Poonawalla

New Delhi: Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Friday that he is hopeful that Covovax, another Covid-19 vaccine being manufactured by his company in India, will be launched in October for adults and for children by the first quarter of 2022.

He thanked the government for all the support provided to the Serum Institute of India and said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand. Poonawalla met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament and the meeting between the two lasted for 30 minutes.

"The government is helping us and we are facing no financial crunch. We are thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all the cooperation and support," Poonawalla said after the meeting. When asked about vaccines for kids, he said, "The Covovax vaccine for kids will be launched in the first quarter of the next year most likely in January-February."

Poonawalla said he is hopeful that for adults Covovax will be launched in October, depending on DCGI approvals. It will be a two-dose vaccine and the price will be decided at the time of launch, he added.

On production capacity of Covishield, the vaccine being manufactured and supplied by Serum in India under a licensing agreement with Oxford and AstraZeneca, he said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month and always try to increase it further. Earlier in the day, Poonawalla also met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The Minister tweeted that he had a productive discussion on the supply of the Covishield vaccine with Poonawalla.