This story is from April 26, 2017

Serum Institute to be largest IPV maker in world

The prevailing shortage of injectable polio vaccine (IPV) the world over has got a Pune solution.
Serum Institute to be largest IPV maker in world
Adar Poonawala, CEO Serum Institute of India
PUNE: The prevailing shortage of injectable polio vaccine (IPV) the world over has got a Pune solution.
City-based vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII) has acquired a Czech Republic-based vaccine plant which will enable it to become the largest IPV maker in the world with over 200 million doses by 2020. The total world demand for IPV is 250-300 million doses per year.
As part of World Health Organisation’s Polio Endgame Strategy, a total 120 countries across the world including India have replaced trivalent oral polio vaccine and switched over to bivalent oral polio vaccine along with IPV.

The prevailing shortage of injectable polio vaccine (IPV) the world over has got a Pune solution.
City-based vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII) has acquired a Czech Republic-based vaccine plant which will enable it to become the largest IPV maker in the world with over 200 million doses by 2020. The total world demand for IPV is 250-300 million doses per year.
As part of World Health Organisation's Polio Endgame Strategy , a total 120 countries across the world including India have replaced trivalent oral polio vaccine and switched over to bivalent oral polio vaccine along with IPV . This led to the severe crunch of IPV vaccines across the world.Since most manufacturers have pledged their available stock with the government, the shortage of the vaccine has been more acute in private healthcare.

“The plant we acquired in Holland in 2012 gave us a capacity of 30 million doses. Now, the Czech Republic plant will have a capacity of 160 million doses.In 2020, when the vaccine comes out at this newly acquired facility in the Czech Republic, Serum Group will become the largest manufacturer of IPV in the world,“ Adar Poonawalla, owner and CEO of SII, told TOI.
Poonawalla said the new acquisition will help arrest the severe vaccine crunch which is faced by many countries, including India. “Today , India does not have even one-tenth the polio vaccine that it needs to protect its children,“ he added.
Poonawalla said, “This acquisition is for 72 million euros, of which 45 million euros has been paid today and the balance is payable in a year. To upgrade the plant, which used to be a flu plant, we will spend and invest over 40 million euros over the next three years.“
The newly acquired plant is a large campus spanning over 35 acres outside of Prague city, in a place called Bohumil.
“We will only be doing half the activity in Europe; the remaining half will be done in India. The finish will be done in India as we want to `Make in India' an Indian product with an Indian label,“ Poonawalla said, Under `Make in India', SII has chosen to invest Rs 1,500 crore in India for the new vaccine plant at the Manjri Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Pune.
“Instead of investing in Europe, we preferred to invest in our country . We believe in the impetus the Modi government is giving India. Every two years, a new vaccine will be launched by Serum Institute to protect children and women against life threatening diseases,“ Poonawalla said.
Paediatrician Pramod Jog, national president of Indian Academy of Paediatrics, said, “The shortage of IPV is likely to become more acute after 2020 when bivalent oral polio vaccine will also be withdrawn and IPV will remain the only vaccine against wild polio virus in the immunisation schedule.“
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About the Author
Umesh Isalkar

Umesh Isalkar is principal correspondent at The Times of India, Pune. He has a PG degree in English literature and is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Umesh covers public health, medical issues, bio-medical waste, municipal solid waste management, water and environment. He also covers research in the fields of medicine, cellular biology, virology, microbiology, biotechnology. He loves music and literature.

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