New Delhi, May 1 (IANS): In a bid to meet its supply commitments, the Serum Institute of India's (SII) Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla on Friday said that the company is planning to start vaccine production in the UK, the media reported.
While speaking to the Times, the CEO of Pune-based pharmaceutical company said that the company will make an official announcement in the upcoming days.
"The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming," Poonawalla told the publication.
Recently, SII had borrowed money from banks instead of waiting for the government's aid to arrive to scale up the production of its Covishield vaccine.
The company assumed that the funding from the government will reach them very soon, probably by this week.
Covishield has been developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca and manufactured by the SII.
The government recently announced that it has given in-principle approval for credit to vaccine manufacturers, SII and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech to boost India's vaccine production in wake of the huge surge in Covid-19 caseload.
The Union Finance Ministry has approved a sanction of Rs 3,000 crore credit for SII and Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech.
Poonawalla, earlier, had suggested that the company would require around Rs 3,000 crore to increase production of Covid-19 vaccines.