PUNE, India (Reuters) – The chief executive of the world's largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, said Serum has strengthened its production capacity ahead of the launch in the coming years of vaccines against diseases such as malaria and the dengue reusing the facilities used to manufacture immunizations against Covid-19.
With Covid vaccine production curtailed as demand wanes, the company is using these facilities to manufacture its newest vaccines. The estimate is that they will increase total production by 2.5 billion doses, Adar Poonawalla said in an interview.
Serum produces AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine under the brand name Covishield in India, and also manufactures Novavax's protein-based Covid vaccines.
The company invested $2 billion during the peak of the global health crisis to increase production.
Currently, the company sells around 1.5 billion doses of vaccines every year and estimates a total production capacity of up to 4 billion doses.
“And this is also important because if there is another pandemic in the future, we will be able to vaccinate the entire India in a matter of three to four months,” assured Poonawalla.
The company is in talks with other countries and governments to use these facilities in the event of future outbreaks, he said, but did not elaborate on the discussions.
Poonawalla said Serum has the capacity to manufacture 100 million doses of its malaria vaccine and could increase further depending on demand. It has already produced 25 million doses before launch, scheduled for the coming months.
The ancient mosquito-borne disease still kills more than half a million people, mostly young children, in sub-Saharan Africa every year.
Poonawalla said Serum will focus on exporting its vaccines, such as the vaccine against malaria to other countries, instead of signing technology transfer agreements.
Serum is also testing a single-dose vaccine against dengue fever, another painful and sometimes fatal mosquito-borne disease, which it developed based on research done by the US National Institutes of Health.
This vaccine is in the initial testing phase in India. The company expects to complete late-stage testing over the next three years, the chief executive said.
Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical also makes a dengue vaccine, which is available in countries including Indonesia and Thailand, as well as Argentina and Brazil, which are currently facing a large outbreak and do not have enough vaccines.
Other companies, such as Indian Immunologicals, are also developing vaccines against the disease.
Source: CNN Brasil
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