Serum Institute of India (SII), the manufacturer of the Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine in India which is marketed as Covishiled has said that the company stopped its production in December 2021.
“Since December 2021, we have stopped the production of the Covishield vaccine. We had a stock of a few hundred million doses at that time and of that 100 million doses had already expired,” SII CEO, Adar Poonawalla said.
No takers for booster dose
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the developing countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network on Thursday in Pune, Poonawalla blamed it on the lack of demand as people were not keen on getting their booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Boosters have no demand now. There is general lethargy among people. People are fed of COVID vaccines. To be honest, I am also fed up with it. We all are,” he said.
Mix and match booster dose
Poonawalla further said that some vaccines are allowed to be mixed with others for booster doses, “Now Covovax should be allowed be mixed soon in two weeks, So I think they will and should probably have the policy to mix boosters,” he stated.
How India’s booster dose drive failed
India had rolled out the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which was dubbed as precautionary dose in April 2022.
But initially, it was only available at government vaccination facilities for frontline workers and those above the age of 60.
Later it was made available to all eligible people who are above the age of 18.
But unlike the first two doses, the booster dose was not free and was available only through private facilities.
This along with the drop in the number of new infections made many reluctant to get the booster dose.
Later the government opened up free booster doses for all above the age of 18, from July 15, for 75 days as part of the 75th Independence Day celebration.
Despite this, the drive failed to pick up momentum and by September 30, the last day of the 75-day window for the free booster dose, only around 27 per cent of the eligible population had taken the vaccine.
In all, 159.2 million booster doses were administered during these 75 days.
As part of the campaign, 11,104 camps were organized at bus stations, 5,664 camps at railway stations, 511 camps at airports, 150,004 camps at schools and colleges, and 4,451 camps at routes of religious yatras. Also, 1,130,044 camps were organised at private and government workplaces.
