Pune, January 21, 2021: A major fire incident has been reported at the Serum Institute of India (SII) plant in Manjari near Hadapsar. The company is engaged in large scale production of Corona vaccine Covishield.

An officer from Pune Fire Brigade told Punekarnews.in, “After getting information, we have rushed 10 fire tenders to control the fire.”

According to officials, the fire broke out at an under-construction building at the Manjari Unit. The fire brigade has rescued three workers and the process to rescue others is going on. There is no damage to Corona vaccines as they are kept in another building.

The company has tied up with pharma firm AstraZeneca and Oxford University for the production of Corona vaccine Covishield. It is reported that the Serum Institute would provide 10 crore (100 million) doses of the vaccine in India and other low and middle-income countries.   

They have also reached an agreement with Novavax for the development and commercialisation of Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373 COVID‑19 vaccine candidate in India and other low and middle-income countries. The company will also produce Codagenix’s nasally administered COVID-19 vaccine, CDX-005.