People fed up of Covid-19 pandemic, no takers for booster jabs: SII CEO Adar Poonawalla

New Delhi: Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, on Thursday (October 20, 2022) said that the people are fed up with the pandemic as there are no demand for COVID-19 booster vaccines anymore. While speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), SII CEO said that the medical firm stopped the production of the Covishield vaccine since 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," Poonawalla told the reporters. 

He further said that Covishield 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. 

"If WHO allowed it, then maybe the Indian regulator will and should allow it, but again 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 added. 

"In India, there is no culture of taking flu shots as we see in the west. We tried when we launched a few vaccines in 2010. During H1NI pandemic in 2011, no one took it. Flu is not something that sounds scary to people. They just do not want to take it," he further added.