The Serum Institute has disassociated itself from its executive director's statement that the government began the Covid-19 vaccination of multiple age groups without taking into consideration the available stock, stating that this is "not the view of the company".

In a letter to the Union Health Ministry on May 22, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), clarified that the statement by its executive director Suresh Jadav at a recent event is not the view of the company, sources said.

"On behalf of our CEO Adar C Poonawalla, I want to inform you that this statement is not issued on behalf of SIIPL (Serum Institute of India Private Limited) and the Company completely dissociates itself from this statement. It is reiterated that, this is not the view of the company at all.

"SIIPL is committed to maximise its Covishield production and it stands shoulder to shoulder to strengthen the government's fight against Covid-19," he said in a communique.

SII also clarified that Poonawalla is the only official spokesperson of the company.

Amid an acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in the country, SII executive director Suresh Jadhav on Friday alleged that the government began inoculating people from multiple age groups without taking into account the available stock of vaccines and the WHO guidelines.

“Initially, 300 million people were to be administered the vaccine for which 600 million doses were required. But before we reached the target, the government opened vaccination for all above 45 years, followed by those aged 18 and above despite knowing well that so much vaccines are not available,” Jadhav had said.

“That is the greatest lesson we learnt. We must take into account the availability of the product and then use it judiciously,” he added.