SII Confident on Getting a Nod for Coronavirus Vaccine Soon:- Serum Institute of India (SII) happens to be one of the world's largest vaccine maker. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer (CEO) of SII said that the vaccine nod for the coronavirus would be given by the government in the next few days. SII is in an alliance with Oxford University-Astra Zeneca to produce Covishield. It is likely to get an emergency use approval in the United Kingdom very soon and it is expected to get a simultaneous nod in India. “We will get some good news in this new year. All the data has been submitted and we must respect the process as regulators are evaluating the data” told Adar Poonawalla.

Pune-based SII is keen to produce 40-50 million doses of vaccine every week and a majority of the stock will be given for Indians on a priority basis. Adar said that the export of the coronavirus to other countries would require meeting the pre-qualification procedures of World Health Organization (WHO). He said that this process would take time. SII is expected to produce 100 million doses of vaccine once their third facility becomes operational and it is expected to start operations from March 2021. SII is predicting that the initial uptake of the coronavirus vaccine would be slow for the first couple of months. The vaccine maker is expected to increase the capacity to 300 million by July.