Covishield will get EMA approval in a month, says Adar Poonawala at Indian Global Forum 2021
The European Union has excluded Covishield from its green pass, a certificate now to issued for the movement of travellers across member nations. Covishield is one of India’s primary vaccine and many Indians has raised concern around Travel to Europe. The CEO of the serum institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, took to Twitter to address the issue and said that he has taken it up at the high levels. SII is the manufacturer of the oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in India.
Serum Institute of India is confident of receiving approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield in a month, the company’s CEO Adar Poonawalla informed on Wednesday.
Addressing at India Global Forum 2021, Poonawalla said, “It is not a controversy, it is just that blown out of proportion and the issue of vaccine passports should be based on reciprocity between the countries.”
“The EMA is correct in asking us to apply, which we have through AstraZeneca, our partners, a month ago, and that process has to take its time. Even the UK MHRA, WHO took its time and we have applied to the EMA,” said Adar Poonawala.
“We are quite confident that in a month EMA will approve Covishield. There is no reason why not to because it is based on AstraZeneca data and our product is identical to AstraZeneca more or less and it has been approved by WHO, UK MHRA. So it’s just a matter of time. It is not going to hinder anything,” the SII chief said.
He also added that “In March, we were able to produce around 70 million doses and now in June, I am pleased to announce that we are producing 90 million doses a month. Probably will have another 10 per cent to that output in August.”
