‘Made In China Virus Will Have Made In India Vaccine’ : Adar Poonawalla Pegs November Date
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII speaking to Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami said that the “Made in China” (COVID-19) virus will definitely have “Made in India” vaccine
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), speaking to Republic Media Network’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on ‘The Sunday Debate’ said that the “Made in China” (COVID-19) virus will definitely have a “Made in India” vaccine. He also spoke about the concept of Herd immunity and said that it is unlikely to happen before a vaccine for the virus comes up.
‘Herd Immunity Takes 2-3 Years To Build Up’
Poonawalla said, “Herd immunity has been doing rounds for a long time and it takes a lot of time to build up — at least two to three years. We cannot talk about herd immunity before the vaccine comes up. It may add to some protection but it is not going to do what people are imagining it will do in the short term period.”
He added, “What I have been urging and listening to everyone’s opinion though I am not an expert on economics or the country, I don’t see any scientific logic or metric which is being offered by the Centre or the states and now I think the states must take responsibility, to in a scientific way to slowly announce to built up sentiment and demand to open up the economy. I don’t hear anything about opening the economy. It should be announced in a scientific and rational way without causing much confusion.”
‘We Will Have Millions of Doses To Give To Our Country’
Speaking about a potential Coronavirus vaccine which has become a holy grail of sorts for the world at the moment, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India making a huge statement said, “As you know, the made in China virus will certainly have a made in India vaccine and I am confident on that because we have got many partnerships and it should be done by October-November and that’s why we are starting production by May 30 so that by October-November, the trials with Oxford vaccine in the UK turn out to be successful and there’s a higher than 80% chance of that, we will have millions of doses to give to our country.”
“Usually, the clearance for vaccine and other things take 3-5 years but what Modi has done is for COVID related development and monoclonals he has completely changed the way in which it is done. The timing of the process has come down and we are getting approvals in 3-4 days and I hope that continues for other vaccines,” Poonawalla added.
The quest to develop a COVID vaccine has become one of the most essential scientific endeavours ever undertaken by mankind, with numerous governments, companies, research labs and institutes and others mobilising funds, technology, expertise and resources towards the effort.
However, creating, trialling, approving, manufacturing and eventually disseminating a vaccine as such a global scale is a monumental effort. Meanwhile, similar trials are also ongoing to find a treatment for COVID.
