'Will keep enough vaccine doses for Parsis': Poonawalla-Screwvala exchange can't be missed

"More than eugh" doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be kept for Parsi community, ar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of vaccine's local manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII), has said. Poonawalla, while replying to a tweet by film producer

Ronnie Screwvala, however, did t specify quantity of doses that will be kept for community, which is grappling with shrinking population. When contacted, a spokesperson of SII told PTI that it was just a "casual and friendly conversation" between two Parsis and once vaccine is me, "everyone will be getting it".

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On Sunday, replying to Ronnie Screwvala on Twitter, Poonawalla said, "Yes @RonnieScrewvala, we will keep more than eugh for community. Our production capacity of just one day will be eugh to cover every Parsi on planet...given size of our community." Srewvala in his tweet, wherein he h tagged Poonawalla, said, "On a lighter te, Since Parsi's are to be Extinct race (Though avg of Parsi's show orwise) re is a lobby that as vaccine does come in re will be a special quota under saving from extinction race..& why t if a Parsi is at forefront of it."

When PTI asked SII through e-mail how many vaccine doses will be reserved for community, company's spokesperson said, "It was just a casual and friendly conversation between two Parsis. Once vaccine is me, everyone will be getting it. It is very early to talk about this."

On distribution strategy of vaccine in India post-production at mass level, spokesperson said "once vaccine trials are done and successful, it will be procured and distributed by governments so that people dont have to buy it directly".

Poonawalla last week said company aims to manufacture 300 million to 400 million doses by year-end, following success of initial and licensure trials. He said as part of agreement with AstraZeneca, SII can manufacture one billion doses for India and nearly 70 low and middle income countries.

re are challenges in manufacturing of vaccine doses and company will be starting by making 60 to 70 million doses per month, he said. high prevalence of COVID-19 infections in Mumbai and Pune will help test efficacy of vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, SII said last week.

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By end of August, between 4,000 to 5,000 people in Pune and Mumbai will be injected with vaccine as part of trials that are scheduled to last over two months, it said. Oxford University has reported satisfactory progress from vaccines test results and is conducting bigger field tests in UK.

In India, it has chosen SII as manufacturing partner, which has to conduct field trials before getting final d to ensure y are safe and effective for Indians.