“Hope To Resolve Soon”: Adar Poonawalla On Covishield, EU Travel Issues

Amid reports that Indians who are vaccinated with the Covishield may not be eligible for the European Union’s ‘Green Pass’, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla on Monday (June 28) tweeted that he is aware of the matter and asserted that he will take this matter at the highest levels and resolve this soon.

“I realise that a lot of Indians who have taken COVISHIELD are facing issues with travel to the E.U., I assure everyone, I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon, both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countries,” tweeted the SII boss.

According to report, Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, is yet to get recognition from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), an agency of the European Union responsible for the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products.

The report added that the digital ‘vaccine passport’, however, recognizes the Vaxzevria version of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is produced in the UK and Europe because it is approved by the EMA but India-made Covishield is yet to get recognized by the EMA.

Notably, the EMA has approved only four Covid-19 vaccines so far: Comirnaty (BioNTech-Pfizer), Moderna, Vaxzevria (Oxford-AstraZeneca) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).