Monkeypox Scare: Prepared to Import Smallpox Vaccines At Risk At My Cost, Says SII's Adar Poonawalla

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Tuesday said his Pune-based pharmaceutical company is ready to import a few million doses of a Danish smallpox vaccine at “risk at his cost” amid the scare over the larger breakout of monkeypox infection in the country. India has so far reported four confirmed cases of monkeypox and a suspected case in Bihar’s capital city Patna.

The first consignment of the smallpox vaccine, manufactured by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic, is expected to arrive in India in a few months once a contract is finalised. Poonawalla, whose firm SII manufactured the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield to fight Covid-19, mentioned that no formal talks have been done with the Centre so far on the large-scale supply of the smallpox vaccine, which is being used to try to stem a global outbreak of monkeypox.

Speaking to NDTV, Poonawalla said, “We are talking to them…That’s a decision the Government of India will eventually have to make with the experts – should we, like other nations, start stockpiling a small quantity, just a few million doses of the vaccine. I am prepared to import it at risk at my cost, initially, in small volumes. Eventually, the government will have to decide on a health policy.”

“In an emergency situation, we could always do the full finish of the product made by that company. That would give access to Indians without safety issues – since the vaccine is time-tested. To make it from scratch will take some time. Bulk supply should be adequate to handle,” the vaccine-maker was quoted as saying.

Poonawalla also said that his firm is looking at the development of a new mRNA vaccine for virus along with Novavax, an American biotechnology company that develops vaccines to counter serious infectious diseases.

Adding that making a vaccine from scratch possibly will take more than a year, he told NDTV, “As a vaccine manufacturer equipped with technological knowhow, we are looking at talking to partners. We are talking to Novovax. We really need to see whether there will be a lot of demand or whether in three to four months it fizzles out.”

With many countries reporting monkeypox cases, the Union Health Ministry advised all states to direct hospitals to watch out for symptomatic patients, who have travelled to the monkeypox-affected countries recently, and isolate them at designated healthcare facilities.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had on July 23 declared monkeypox a global public health emergency of international concern. More than 16,000 cases of the disease have been reported from 75 countries till July 24 and there have been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak.

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