Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest vaccine production Company which is producing 'Covishield' vaccine seems to be in trouble . A legal notice has been sent to the institute by the British and Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Due to delay in supply of the vaccine AstraZeneca took this step .

Here, the institute has urged the Government of India to help in the form of a grant to double the production of Covishield vaccines. Serum institute is developing and selling the Corona vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca under the brand name Covishield in India. The CEO of Serum Institute Mr. Adar Poonawala said on Tuesday that to increase the production capacity of the corona vaccine, about Rs 3,000 crore would be required.


Poonawala said in an interview that the company is under pressure due to high demand and lack of funds . He further said that the Institute is supplying the vaccine in the Indian market for around Rs 150-160 while the average price of the vaccine is around $ 20 (Rs 1500). At the request of the Modi government, we are giving vaccines at concessional rates. It is not that we are not making profits, but we need more profits, which is necessary to reinvest.

He further said, three thousand crore rupees is not a small amount. We have already spent thousands of crores of rupees. We have to find other new ways to build our capacity. ' He said that the company expects the production capacity of the covishield vaccine to increase to 11 crore per month from June. 

Serum Institute is producing 20 lakh doses per day. They have given more than 100 million doses in India alone and exported around 60 million doses to other countries. The serum institute as well as other vaccine producers have also agreed with the government for not taking profits.
The company is currently producing six to seven crore vaccines per month.