World's biggest vaccine maker slashes Covid-19 jab production by half

The world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the India-based Serum Institute, plans to reduce production of the AstraZeneca jab against Covid-19 by at least half, its chief executive said in a television interview.

Serum Institute boss, Adar Poonawalla, cited the failure of the Indian government to place any new orders as the reason for his plans to slash production, in comments to Indian television channel CNBC-TV18.

He also said that orders from the UN vaccine initiative were coming in very slowly.

"I am going to be reducing the production by at least 50 per cent to begin with, going forward on a monthly basis, until the orders again pick up either in India and the world," Poonawalla said.

The company currently makes 250 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine every month. The shot is sold in India under the name .

Earlier this year, the Serum Institute was chosen to be the main supplier for the UN vaccine initiative COVAX, which seeks to Covishield improve poorer countries' access to vaccines amid dramatic inequalities worldwide.

Poonawalla's company initially supplied millions of doses abroad, either supplying countries directly or through the COVAX scheme.

However, when India faced a severe wave of cases of Covid-19 in spring, the Indian government responded by stopping exports of the jab, only recently allowing them to resume. Many poorer countries were forced to seek alternative sources of the shot in the interim.