Serum Institute asks govt to take up inclusion of Covishield in vaccination passport with EU

Serum Institute of India (SII) has requested the government to take up the matter of inclusion of Covishield vaccine in the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport with the European Union and other countries, citing this will affect students and business travellers and cause severe disruptions to the Indian and global economy.

Only four vaccines — Comirnaty of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Vaxzervria by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen — have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and only those vaccinated by these vaccines will be given vaccination passports and will be allowed to travel within the EU during the pandemic.

”India has a large population. However, not including Covishield into the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport will not allow Covishield vaccinated people to travel to European countries and this will affect students, business travellers back and forth, and cause severe disruptions to our economy and to the global economy,” a source quoted Adar C Poonawalla, CEO of SII, as having communicated in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Sources said referring to Poonawalla’s letter, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, Prakash Kumar Singh, has also sought Jaishankar’s intervention at the highest level, saying, ”It will be in the national interest as well as in the interest of people at large globally if Covishield vaccine is included in the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport.” Poonawalla in his letter is learnt to have mentioned that nearly 30 crore people have already been vaccinated with Covishield in India and it is expected that more than 50 per cent of Indian population will be protected with Covishield vaccine finally.

The letter also mentions that AstraZeneca-SII Covishield has been manufactured under technology transfer from Oxford/AstraZeneca and that clinical trials of the vaccine have been conducted successfully abroad and has been approved by MHRA for emergency use approval.

Poonawalla on Monday said he has taken up the issues faced by Indians who have taken the Covishield jab travelling to the European Union at highest levels and hopes to resolve them soon.

”I realise that a lot of Indians who have taken Covishield are facing issues with travel to the EU, I assure everyone, I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon, both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countries,” Poonawalla said in a tweet.