Supply order for Covishield vaccine was placed after drug regulator approved it: Govt

Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey was responding to a question on whether the government has finalised a pricing and supply agreement with the Serum Institute of India Limited for COVID-19 vaccines.

Covishield is being manufactured by the Pune-based firm with technology transfer from AstraZeneca/Oxford University.

On whether it is a fact that multiple doses of the vaccine produced for India could not be rolled out despite approval due to the lack of a formal agreement for supply, Choubey, in a written reply, said, '' No. As per protocol, the supply order for COVID-19 vaccines, specifying the number of vaccine doses, was placed with the manufacturer and vaccines were delivered within 3 days to the states and UTs and other consignee points.''