Confident Europe Medicine Body Will Approve Covishield In A Month: Serum's Adar Poonawalla

The issuing of vaccine passports should be on the basis of reciprocity between the countries, Adar Poonawalla said.

Vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII) is confident of receiving approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield in a month, the company's Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said today. The issuing of vaccine passports should be on the basis of reciprocity between the countries, he said. "The EMA is absolutely correct in asking us to apply, which we have through AstraZeneca, our partner, a month ago, and that process has to take its time. An approval process even with UK MHRA, WHO took its time and we have applied to the EMA," Mr Poonawalla said at India Global Forum 2021. "We are quite confident that in a month EMA will approve Covishield. There is no reason not to because it is based on AstraZeneca data and our product is identical to AstraZeneca more or less and it has been approved by WHO, UK MHRA. So it's just a matter of time. It is not really going to hinder anything," he added.