Fire outbreak at Serum Institute, World’s largest vaccine producer

 Fire outbreak at Serum Institute, World’s largest vaccine producer

By Modupe Shodeinde

A building under construction at Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, was ablaze on Thursday.

The Associated Press reported that this could possibly affect the institutes’ future expansion of COVID-19 vaccine production.

The cause and extent of damage of the fire outbreak, were not immediately clear.

However, the company said the fire did not affect existing facilities making COVID-19 vaccines or a stockpile of around 50 million doses. Also no injuries were reported.

It said the fire was restricted to a new facility it is constructing to increase production of COVID-19 vaccines and ensure it is better prepared for future pandemics.

Firefighters were said to have extinguished the flames.

The Associated Press reported that last month, in an earlier interview with the institutes’ CEO, Adar Poonawalla, he stated that the company hopes to increase production capacity from 1.5 billion doses to 2.5 billion doses per year by the end of 2021. The new facility is key to the expansion.

Of the more than 12 billion coronavirus vaccine doses expected to be produced this year, rich countries have already bought about 9 billion, and many have options to buy even more. As a result, Serum Institute is likely to make most of the vaccines that will be used by developing nations.

Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest maker of vaccines and has been contracted to manufacture a billion doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine.

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