We will be producing around 300 million doses by July 2021, says Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla

New Delhi, Dec 28: The Serum Institute of India (SII), a Pune-based vaccine developer, chief executive Adar Poonawalla on Monday said that it is ready with a stockpile of 40 to 50 million doses of Covishield, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca.

''We have 40-50 million doses of Covishield stockpiled. Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it'll be down to the Govt to decide how much they can take and how fast. We will be producing around 300 million doses by July 2021,'' Poonawalla said.

''India is a part of 'COVAX'. We will keep giving 50% of everything we make to India & to COVAX at the same time. India has such a large population that we will probably end up giving the majority of those 50 million doses to India first: Adar Poonawalla, Serum Institute of India,'' he said.

''The first six months of 2021 will see a shortage globally. Nobody can help that. But we will see easing off by August-September 2021 as other vaccine manufactures also being able to supply,'' the SII head said during a media interaction, according to ANI.

Meanwhile, India's Covid-19 caseload rose to 1,02,07,871 with 20,021 infections being reported in the last 24 hours and recoveries surged to 9.78 million, according to the Union health ministry on Monday. The death toll of the world's second-worst hit country increased to 147,901 with 279 new fatalities, data showed.