Fire Break out Did Not Affect the Supply of Covishield: CEO of the Serum Institute of India

Pune: The supply of the indigenous vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Pune based pharma-giant Serum Institute of India, was not affected by the sudden fire break out at the new unit of the manufacturers.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, while speaking in a media address on Friday, stated – “The supply of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield will not be affected due to the fire. No actual vaccine was being made at that facility. We were lucky that the incident happened in a different building. The extent of the financial damage is more than Rs. 1000 crores.”

The CEO, further added his assurance about zero damage of the Covishield vaccines, saying – “The fire has no impact on the production of the Covishield vaccine and no damage has occurred to the existing stock either”. 

It is noteworthy that, on Thursday, a fire had broken out at the Serum Institute of India’s new plant located at Manjari area, near Hadapsar. The fire tenders rushed to the spot and rescued 6 people from an under-construction building inside the factory premises. A few hours later, another compartment of the SII building caught fire, in which, a total of 5 people lost their lives.

Rajesh Tope, the Health Minister of Maharashtra, revealed that the building caught fire from the welding work inside the under-construction unit premises. The Serum Institute of India, after the incident, has announced a compensation of Rs. 25 lakh for the families of the workers that died in the mishap.