Serum fire losses pegged at over Rs 1,000 crore; Covid vaccine supplies safe

PUNE: Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday said its manufacturing plant at Manjari here suffered a loss of over Rs 1,000 crore in Thursday’s fire that claimed five lives.

Poonawalla said, “We have got multiple facilities. The fire did not affect the supply of the Covid vaccine. Our other productions, such as the BCG vaccine, suffered a loss. We will make up for the supply gap. We have suffered huge financial losses. But there is no supply loss.”

“After the fire broke, we had initially received a report that all workers have been rescued. We tweeted the information because we were happy. After the fire was doused and the fumes dissipated, we got to know that five workers had died. We did not have the list of workers at the building. We later got an update and have offered our condolences to the victims’ families. My father has announced compensation (Rs25 lakh each) for the victims’ family members,” he added.

SII CMD and Adar’s father Cyrus Poonawalla said, “There was no production at the building. The production was yet to start. The fire did not cause damage to other buildings in the special economic zone.”

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited SII and took stock of the situation. “Covid-19 has not gone from Maharashtra. Last week we had a ray of hope following the launch of the vaccination drive. The Covid vaccine stock in SII is safe,” he said.