Sorselot
Serum Institute of India (SII) chief executive Adar Poonawalla said on Thursday that at least one hundred million doses of the company’s COVID vaccine had expired after production was halted in December 2021 due to low demand.
SII makes AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) and Oxford University’s Vaxzevria COVID vaccine and sells it as Covishield in India.
The vaccines, which have a nine-month expiration period, had expired in September 2022, the BBC reported.
“Booster shots are not in need as other people now seem to be fed up with COVID,” Poonawala said.
Covishield accounts for more than 90% of the doses administered in India. In January 2022, India gave reminders, but so far, the country has managed only 298 million withdrawals, the report added, mentioning India’s Ministry of Health.
In addition, Poonawalla said the company has finished testing of Novavax’s (NASDAQ: NVAX) Covovax COVID vaccine as a booster and expects approval within the next 10 to 15 days.
Poonawalla added that SII collaborated with Novavax on a specific reinforcement of Omicron.
Moreover, earlier reported that Pfizer (PFE) expects to increase the price of its COVID vaccine, evolved with BioNTech (BNTX) Wall Street expects price increases due to lower demand for COVID vaccines.