The Covid-19 vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be available by January-end next year, NCP supremo and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Pawar said.
“The vaccine will come by January-end 2021,” said Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister and two-term Union Agriculture Minister, after visiting the SII facility in Pune on Friday.
The 79-year-old leader also said that he got a BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine administered at the SII on Friday morning to increase immunity. “It increases immunity and I got it administered,” the NCP chief told reporters in Pune.
It may be mentioned that Dr Cyrus S Poonawalla, the Chairman of SII and his son Adar Poonawala, the CEO of world's leading vaccine company, shares an excellent relationship with the Pawar family.
This is Pawar’s second visit to the SII facility in Pune in recent times – the other being on 1 August.