The government will need Rs 80,000 crore  over the next one year to buy and distribute Covid-19 vaccine across the country, said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII).

“Quick question; will the Government of India have Rs 80,000 crores available, over the next one year? Because that’s what @MoHFW_INDIA needs, to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning the challenge we need to tackle.  @PMOIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted.

The  world’s leading vaccine manufacturer, SII,  has joined hands with five global pharma companies including AstraZeneca to produce one billion doses of its vaccine candidate,  besides partnering with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute to manufacture the Sputnik V vaccine.

The Serum Institute of India has pledged half of it to    the country.

SII presently produces 1.5 billion doses of polio, measles and influenza vaccines for 170 countries.

A fortnight ago, Poonawalla  said that it would take four to five years until “everyone on the planet” gets vaccinated. He estimated the need for close to 15 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine if a two-dose programme — similar to the measles vaccinations drive —  is put in place.

“It’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet.”  Poonawala had earlier predicted that if the coronavirus shot is a two-dose vaccine, as is the case with measles or rotavirus, then the world would require 15 billion doses. The phase-III or the last stage of the clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine “Covishield”, being developed by Oxford University, and manufactured by the SII began at the state-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune on Monday.