Amid the row over UK tightening quarantine rules for vaccinated Indians, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Monday said that countries across the world need to harmonise vaccine certification on priority.
?Leaders need to address the issue of harmonising vaccine certification as a priority,? Poonawalla told CNBC-TV18, according to Moneycontrol.
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Poonawalla’s comments came in the backdrop of several Indian leaders, including former Union ministers Jairam Ramesh and Shashi Tharoor, condemned the UK for treating vaccinated Indians as ‘unvaccinated’ upon their arrival to the country.
Poonawalla also said that he was ?shocked why countries are unable to come together on one regulatory quality standard for vaccine trials and travel passports.?
According to the recent UK government?s order, a person vaccinated in countries like the UAE, India, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand, Russia, or the continents of Africa and South America, will be considered as unvaccinated and will have to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine upon their arrival.
The inclusion of India in the UK list has drawn questions as 88 percent of the country?s eligible population have been vaccinated with SII’s Covishield, identical to the AstraZeneca vaccine used for the mass inoculation drive in the UK.
The report also points out that other countries like Australia, Bahrain, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and South Korea, that have been vaccinated using the UK-made AstraZeneca vaccine for their inoculation programme, have been excluded from the list.
?Covishield is identical to AstraZeneca vaccine and data has been submitted to the UK MHRA and EU regulators. I have had personal consultations with regulators in the UK and EU and expect a response shortly. We will ensure vaccines made in India are approved in other countries,? Poonawalla reportedly said.
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?It is not regulatory filing or quality systems but vaccine certificate systems that western nations are struggling to find a way out,? he added.
Meanwhile, SII is waiting for government nod to resume export of Covid-19 vaccines to the world as the company has a backlog of billion-dollar vaccine doses.
“The SII has a backlog of billion dollar vaccine doses that has still not been exported. We will wait for directive from government on when and how Covid-19 vaccine exports will resume. We have invested Rs 3,000-4,000 crore in building Covid vaccine capacities in India Rs 1,500 crore advance payment from the government has helped us,? he said.
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