Pune: A fire broke out at Serum Institute of India (SII) caused damage to manufacturing plant and left five dead. Possibility of threat to the future supply of Covid-19 vaccines in India & abroad speculated.

Though Adar Poonawala, CEO- SII assured that there will be no disruption in vaccine supplies of Covishield. SII makes the Covishield vaccine, which accounts for the bulk of India’s Covid inoculation programme, based on AstraZeneca-Oxford University knowhow.

Total estimated cost of loss due to fire is estimated 1000 cr.

Poonawalla said the incident won’t affect Covishield plans.

SII has reserves of up to 50 million Covishield doses. It’s expected to supply more than 200 million doses in the next quarter to India and other countries as well as the GAVI Alliance. Those production commitments may have to be revised, said people aware of the matter.

SII is pledged to manufacture close to 1 billion doses of the vaccine being developed by US-based Novavax to the World Health Organistion’s Covax facility. It’s also committed to providing up to 400 million doses of the AZ-Oxford vaccine to Covax.

The state government has ordered a probe into the matter.

Fire broke out at 2:45 pm on the fourth and fifth floors of the SEZ 3 building on SII’s premises and was brought under control in two hours, sources said.

Pune chief fire officer Prashant Ranpise informed that  15 water tankers were pressed into action and the fire was brought under control at around 4:30 pm. Nine people have been rescued but five lives have succumbed to fire. There is no loss of vaccine manufacturing unit.

Cyrus Poonawala, SII Chairman expressed his regret at the fierce incident & announced compensation of Rs 25 Lakh to the families of deceased in addition to the mandated amount as per the norms.