Hopeful Of Launching Covovax For Adults In October, For Children In Q1-2022, Says Adar Poonawala

New Delhi: Covovax, another COVID-19 vaccine being manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) will be launched in October for adults and for children by the first quarter of 2022, its CEO Adar Poonawala said on Friday.

Thanking the government for the support provided to SII, he said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand.

Poonawalla met Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament and the meeting between the two lasted for 30 minutes, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported quoting PTI.

“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,” Poonawala told PTI after his meeting.

On 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.”

Poonawala 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 the production capacity of Covishield, he said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month with efforts to increase it further.

Earlier in the day, Poonawalla also met Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The minister tweeted that he had a productive discussion on the supply of the Covishield vaccine with Poonawalla, the report added.

“I appreciated their role in mitigating #COVID19 & assured continued Government support in ramping up vaccine production,” Mandaviya said.