Our emphasis is on vaccine effectiveness and its safety, says Adar Poonawalla

Our emphasis is on vaccine effectiveness and its safety, says Adar Poonawalla

Pune: "There are many reports that India is in a hurry to bring coronavirus vaccine infact we are in no hurry to produce vaccines. Our emphasis is on vaccine effectiveness and its safety. The vaccine will be made available to India and other countries of the world only after it is clear that it is safe. It will take another six months." said Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of the Serum Institute unveiling of Mylab's ‘Compact XL’ - the fully-automated Sample-to-PCR-ready system for molecular diagnostics.

The vaccine has been jointly developed by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and Bharat Biotech. This is the first vaccine in India. Human testing of the vaccine has been approved and trials will begin soon. The ICMR has claimed that the developed vaccine will be available in India by August 15.

Adar Poonawalla stressed, "There is a need to increase virus testing until the vaccine becomes available. The increasing the tests would make it possible to isolate the affected people. So the spread can be curtailed. With the number of infected people increasing every day, it is not dangerous. But rising mortality due to this pandemic is dangerous. For this, it is necessary to increase the tests and treat the critical people immediately."

"My Lab has the capacity to produce two million test kits per week. But even half of it is not produced due to lack of demand. On the other hand, export is not allowed by the Central Government. We can export enough stock for India. Doctor's certificate or perception is a hurdle for testing. People who do not have symptoms cannot be tested. Many companies, including Serum, want to test their employees. But that is not possible," he concluded.

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