The world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, India-based Serum Institute, has revealed plans to reduce the production of the AstraZeneca jab against COVID-19 by at least half.
Chief executive of the institute, Adar Adar Poonawalla made this known during a new interview.
According to Poonawalla, the plan to reduce production resulted from the Indian government failure to place any new order.
Poonawalla also revealed that orders from the UN vaccine initiative were coming in very slowly.
“I am going to be reducing the production by at least 50 per cent, to begin with, going forward on a monthly basis, until the orders again pick up in India and the world,” he said.
Serum Institute has played a massive role in the production of the COVID-19 vaccine as they currently make 250 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine every month.
Earlier this year, the institute was chosen to be the main supplier for UN vaccine initiative COVAX, which seeks to improve poorer countries’ access to vaccines amid dramatic inequalities worldwide.
The company initially supplied millions of doses abroad, either supplying countries directly or through the COVAX scheme.