Chennai: Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that the company was facing a shortfall of Rs 3,000 crore to ramp up vaccine production capacities.
Poonawalla said, “We need roughly Rs 3,000 crores which is not a small figure considering we have already spent thousands of crores. We have to find other innovative ways to build our capacity so we can support our nation in light of Covid surge.”
He said the existing production capacity was ‘very stressed’, according to NDTV. The company hopes to increase its capacity of Covishield to 110 million doses per month from June onwards, he added. The company is producing 2 million doses per day, Poonawalla said.
“We have delivered over 100 million doses to India alone and exported around 60 million doses to other countries,” he added.
In a subsequent interview to news agency AP, Poonawalla had reiterated the warning that the SII would be hard-pressed to meet domestic needs.