The executive director of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has warned that there will not be enough vaccines against covid-19 for everyone in the world to be inoculated by the end of 2024, at best.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Indian institute, revealed that pharmaceutical companies are not increasing production capacity quickly enough to vaccinate the world’s population in less time.
“It will take four to five years for everyone to get the vaccine on this planet,” said Poonawalla, speaking to the Financial Times, who estimated that if the vaccine is two doses – like measles – the world will need 15 billion doses.
Headquartered in the western Indian city of Pune, the Serum Institute of India partnered with five international pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Novavax, to develop a vaccine against covid-19 and pledged to produce a billion billion doses – half of which promised India. The company can also partner with the Moscow Gamaleya Institute to manufacture the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
According to Poonawalla, the commitment far exceeded the capacity of other vaccine producers. “I know that the world wants to be optimistic, but I have not heard of anyone approaching that level right now,” he told the British newspaper.
His statement casts doubt on the allegations of politicians who promised vaccines until next month, while concerns are heightened by the fact that large pre-orders from the United States and Europe leave developing countries in the background.
Ponawalla’s perspective on vaccine production and distribution is important, given that the Serum Institute of India is in charge of producing doses of vaccines for much of the developing world.
The company is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, producing 1.5 billion doses annually for use in more than 170 countries to protect against many infectious diseases, such as polio, measles and influenza.
As part of its agreement with AstraZeneca, the company will aim to produce doses of vaccines that cost about $ 3 (2.53 euros) for 68 countries and, under its agreement with Novavax, for 92 countries.
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