Vaccines are safe, Serum CEO says after fire at its plant
The fire that broke out at the Manjri plant of India's Serum Institute on Thursday afternoon did not affect its Covid vaccine manufacturing facility, said Serum owner and Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla.
"The Covid vaccine manufacturing unit remained safe and it is the Rotavirus manufacturing facility at the plant which has caught the fire," he told Times of India.
"Luckily, the Covid vaccine manufacturing unit remained safe and out of the fire ambit. But still, very sad because the fire will disrupt the rotavirus vaccine supply by about 30% to 40%. Nobody is hurt which is more important," he added.
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A sizeable number of firefighting vehicles from the Pune fire brigade's Hadapsar fire station rushed to the site for bring the blaze under control. Police and other authorities too reached the spot.
The plant produces multiple vaccines along with Covishield. The cause of fire is being investigated, said fire brigade officials.
Serum Institute is producing millions of doses of the Covishield coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Earlier in the day, a consignment of 20 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, gifted by India, arrived at Dhaka Airport by air cargo.
Bangladesh government in November last year signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to buy 3 crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
