Adar Poonawalla Urges US to Lift Embargo on Vaccine Raw Material

SII has been facing export hurdles from the US due to the invocation of the US Defence Production Act.

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla

(Image: The Quint)

Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), has urged US President Joe Biden to lift the embargo on raw material for COVID vaccine to ramp up production.

In a tweet posted on Friday, 16 April, he wrote, “Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo on raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can be ramped up. Your administration has the details."

SII, the manufacturer of Covishield vaccine that has been developed by Astra Zeneca and Oxford University, has not only been providing doses to India but also exporting it abroad.

However, it's been facing export hurdles from the US due to the invocation of the US Defence Production Act that could lead to shortage of cell culture media, single-use tubing assemblies and certain chemicals.

While Poonawalla had earlier said that this could limit the production of vaccines, the issue had also been brought up before the US government by India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu.