SII's Adar Poonawalla urges Joe Biden to lift embargo of raw materials for vaccine

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has requested the US President Joe Biden to lift an embargo on US exports of raw materials to smoothen the production of vaccine shots.

SII is producing AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and will soon begin producing the Novavax vaccine shots too.

"Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up," Adar Poonawalla, Chief executive of SII tweeted.

This request has come at a time when several countries are facing surge in coronavirus cases and shortage of vaccine shots.

To deal with the crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to do whatever is possible in each government’s capacity, especially in South-East Asia region, to prevent further worsening of the pandemic.

"Cases are rising for the past several weeks. These are worrying trends as we continue to see opening of societies and emergence of variants. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of pandemic response and we need to reinforce them. We need to apply all the tools we have, and apply them together," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region said.