Fire at Serum Institute of India: Production of BCG, Rotavirus vaccines impacted

MUMBAI: Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Friday said the fire at its Manjari facility will impact the production of BCG and Rotavirus vaccines.

Five people were killed in the fire that broke out in an under-installation building at the facility near Pune on Thursday afternoon.

SII is a leading supplier of Rotavirus and BCG vaccines to the health ministry’s immunisation programme.


Apart from financial loss, the mishap will impact the production of BCG and Rotavirus vaccines, the company said in a statement.

Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of SII, had said on Thursday that there will be no disruption in supply of the Covid-19 vaccine being produced there.

SII’s Covid-19 vaccine Covishield is based on AstraZeneca-Oxford University knowhow. It accounts for the bulk of India’s Covid-19 inoculation programme.

Most of SII’s manufacturing capacity of 1.5 billion doses of vaccine is located in Pune.