The Finance Minister on Monday, 19 April, has agreed to sanction supply credit to COVID-19 vaccine manufactures Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII). The credit will be sanctioned to the nodal ministers in charge for COVID-19, who will then pass it on to the two companies to ramp up vaccine production, reports said.
The ministry has cleared a credit of Rs 3,000 crore for SII and Rs 1,500 crore for Bharat Biotech.
The decision to sanction funds for the two pharmaceutical companies comes after the SII CEO Adar Poonwala requested the government for Rs 3,000 crore grant for ramping up capacity of the COVID-19 vaccine beyond 100 million doses a month.
Serum Institute of India, based in Pune, produces the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine, which is marketed as Covishield in India. Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company produces Covaxin.
Just three months after it rolled out its first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations, multiple states have reported vaccine shortages.
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