A large fire broke out on Thursday inside the complex of India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker.
Images from Reuters partner ANI showed smoke coming out of a building in the SII complex massif in the western city of Pune, in the southern state of Maharashtra.
“Thank you all for your concern and prayers,” SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Twitter. “So far the most important thing is that there have been no lives lost or major injuries due to the fire, although some floors have been destroyed.”
He added in a later tweet: “I would like to reassure all governments and the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to several production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with these contingencies. and @SerumInstIndia “.
The firm produces about 50 million doses a month of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca at other facilities in the complex.
Officials said at least five fire trucks had been sent to fight the building’s fire, which a source described to Reuters as a “vaccine plant under construction.”
No injuries were reported and no immediate cause of the fire was known.
Poonawalla told the Associated Press last month that SII expects to increase production capacity from 1.5 billion doses to 2.5 billion doses per year by the end of 2021.
Of the more than 12 billion doses expected to be produced this year, rich countries have already bought some 9 billion and many have options to buy even more.