The vaccine giant’s chairman, Cyrus Poonawalla, claimed on Monday that the serum Institute of India has made vaccinations available to needy countries for the price of a ‘cup of tea.’ He claims that the low cost of Serum Institute’s vaccines is the cause for the company’s position as the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses rather than value.
He claims that one or more of SII’s vaccines have protected two-thirds of the world’s population. “Poorer countries have used the majority of our immunizations.”
He said that when he started the small facility in Pune, he was not aware that it would later bring in such a huge success, but the affordable pricing made all the difference.
The main crux of the matter is that the same templet that is low cost, high production, was applied to make 90 per cent of India’s requirement of COVID vaccine, Poonawalla said while speaking at the summit.
“All over the world, they are surprised that how a company in India has been able to provide vaccines to protect the rest of the countries. Not just Africa, I must stress that 170 countries worldwide use SII vaccines,” he added.
“Experts from all over the world have estimated that around 30 million children’s lives were saved because we had provided the affordable vaccines,” he said. Poonawalla added that not only Africa, 170 countries across the world still use vaccines from Serum Institute.