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A fire struck a building of the Serum Institute, the Indian company that produces vaccines with technology from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, this Thursday (21), in the city of Pune.
Vaccine stocks and the industry where they are made are safe, according to the Times of India newspaper. Currently, the Serum Institute produces around 50 million doses of the vaccine per month in other units of the complex.
Fire reaches institute that produces doses of Oxford vaccine in India
The company will also start producing vaccines developed by the American company Novavax.
According to the CEO of the company, Adar Poonawalla, the fire department produces rotavirus vaccines. He estimates that the loss in this production line will be up to 40% of the dose volume.
The Indian television networks show a column of gray smoke over the company’s headquarters.
- India starts exporting vaccines this week, but not to Brazil
Indians see fire at the Serum Institute in Pune on January 21, 2021 – Photo: AFP
In a social network, Poonawalla, the executive director, thanked everyone for their concern and their prayers.
“So far, the most important thing is that no lives or major injuries have been lost by the fire, although some floors have been destroyed,” he said.
Firefighters said at least five trucks were dispatched to fight the fire in the building and that the fire was under control.
It is not yet known what caused the fire.
India produces 60% of the vaccines distributed worldwide; Serum Institute is the largest factory
Instituto Serum is the largest vaccine manufacturer on the planet. 1.5 billion doses are produced for various diseases, from polio to mumps. It is estimated that six out of ten children in the world will receive at least one vaccine manufactured by the Indian company.
This week, India began exporting vaccines produced by the Serum Institute to six countries, but not Brazil.
Brazil expects to export two million doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine found in India, but diplomatic relations between the two governments have been in trouble for three months due to Brazil’s stance at a meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO). ).
The meeting was in mid-October 2020.
South Africa and India have submitted an application to the World Trade Organization’s Intellectual Property Council to temporarily suspend patent rights on medical supplies and equipment to combat Covid-19, until the majority of the world’s population has been vaccinated.
The WTO intellectual property agreement already provides for flexibility of patent rights in cases like this, but it is necessary to launch one product at a time in each country, and the argument was that there was no time to lose.
Representatives of the Brazilian government said that “they were not convinced that the suspension of property rights would guarantee us a significant increase in access to products, and could give the wrong signal to innovators and even hinder efforts to produce the solutions that we need. ”.
