Serum Institute of India (SII) officials on Friday have said that the company has suffered huge financial losses after the fire incident that can have significant consequences in their other processes.
On Thursday afternoon at around 2.45 pm, a massive fire broke out at one of the SII’s production facilities.
“The fire that broke in an under-installation building of SII plant at Manjari in Pune will impact the production of BCG and Rota vaccines in the future,” the SII said in an official statement to news agency ANI.
Adar Poonawalla, Serum Institute of India CEO had assured that the production of Covid-19 vaccine – Covishield – won’t be affected due to the incident.
“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of Covishield production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted on Thursday.
The blaze broke out at the 4th and 5th floor of the SEZ3 building. The building is an under-construction building where the production of Covid-19 was scheduled to start after a month. The building is 1km far from the Covishield manufacturing plant.
On Friday, a forensic team from the state government visited the incident site to collect samples for investigation.
Also Read: 5 dead in SII fire tragedy; ‘deeply saddened’ says CEO Adar Poonawalla
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed his sadness at the loss of lives and hoped that the investigation will be fairly done. “We are saddened by the loss of life and send our condolences to the families impacted, and we hope the fire is fully investigated,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said at the media briefing on Thursday.
The SII had announced a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each of the families of the deceased, and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has assured that the state government has ordered a probe.