Pune: Serum Institute of India (SII) confirmed that it suffered losses to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in Thursday’s fire, though the supplies or production of the COVID-19 vaccine are unaffected.
“The fire incident will not affect Covishield supplies, but it has damaged the rotavirus and BCG vaccine manufacturing and storage facilities. It is a big financial loss for us, more than Rs 1,000 crore,” Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla said at a media briefing on Friday.
“By God’s grace, and prayers by all of us, the fire incident took place in another building and Covishield production and stock was not affected at all,” Poonawalla said.
Five workers engaged in electrical and air-conditioning jobs lost lives on the Serum campus in Manjhari area in Pune on Thursday.
“We were hoping that there was no loss of life. When we got an initial report that there has been no loss of life, we were relieved and hence I sent out a tweet,” the SII CEO said.
“But later, after clearing of smoke, the dead bodies were discovered. We did not have a complete list of the third-party workers and did not know how many were working at the site. Once I got to know about the tragic deaths of the workers, then I sent out another message to condole the deaths. My father (Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla Group of which Serum Institute is part) also announced financial aid for their families,” Poonawalla added.
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