Too Many COVID-19 Vaccines Creates Waste

The world's largest vaccine manufacturer and a key supplier of COVID-19 to developing countries announced it had stopped production after its stockpile grew to 200 million doses.

Serum Institute of India (SII) Ltd. CEO Adar Poonawalla said at the India Economic Conclave on April 22, 2022, "We have got 200 million doses of stock and is worried about wastage if the shots expired," reported Bloomberg.

"I have even offered to give free donations to whoever wanted to take it."

Poonawala indicated that SII, a core supplier for the WHO-backed Covax program that helps ensure vaccine supply to developing countries, is drafting a "global pandemic treaty" to bring about free flow and coordination of essential resources like raw materials for vaccine production.

An intergovernmental negotiating body tasked with drafting and negotiating this pandemic instrument will hold its next meeting by August 2022 to discuss progress on a working draft.

And it will then deliver a progress report to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023, with the aim to adopt the instrument by 2024.

To create incremental commercial demand for SII's leading COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, the company announced a significant price reduction on April 10, 2022.

Note: This news article edited various content sources and was manually curated for mobile readership.