New Delhi – Five people died in a fire that broke out in the large complex of the Serum Institute of India, one of the largest vaccine production facilities in the world, which is currently producing millions of doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
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The fire started Thursday afternoon in a building still under construction on the 100-acre site in the southwestern city of Pune. It was brought under control on Thursday night, but at least two of the top floors of the five-story building were destroyed.
“Today is an extremely sad day for all of us at the Serum Institute of India. Unfortunately, there was a loss of life in the fire that broke out,” said Adar Poonawalla, CEO and owner of the Serum Institute of India, in a statement. He said the victims’ families would receive “compensation” of about $ 34,000 each, in addition to any mandatory payments.
Pune’s mayor Murlidhar Mohol confirmed that five people had died. Their bodies were recovered from the building’s charred floors.
Earlier in the day, Poonawalla said the production of the coronavirus vaccine, produced in India under the brand Covishield, would not be affected by the fire.
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Police and firefighters said the fire would be investigated. The cause is not immediately clear.
The Serum Institute started distributing hundreds of thousands of doses of Covishield last week. He says he must have 100 million doses produced by March.
India launched what was described as the largest mass vaccination campaign in the world on Saturday. The government plans to immunize 300 million people by July. Along with the Covishield vaccines, India will also use Covaxin, a domestic vaccine produced by Bharat Biotech.
The Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, producing 1.5 billion doses of drugs annually to combat a range of diseases, including polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella. Its products are exported to more than 170 countries.
Several middle and low income nations are counting on the Serum Institute to supply their stocks of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, COVAX plan supported by the World Health Organization. The project, which aims to ensure fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, secured an order for 200 million doses from Serum’s facilities.
Bangladesh, Nepal and several countries in Central Asia and Africa are expecting their first shipments from Covishield in the coming weeks.
India exported the first batches of the vaccine formulated at Oxford from Serum to Bhutan and the Maldives on Wednesday.
The UK’s mass vaccination plan is also heavily dependent on the drug Oxford / AstraZeneca, but that stock is being produced in the UK.