Serum Institute vaccine production facility fire under control

A massive fire that broke out on Thursday at vaccine-maker Serum Institute of India's (SII) Pune facility has been brought under control, reports NDTV.

Five people were trapped but all have been rescued.

It took around three hours for firemen to bring the blaze under control. The cause of the fire is still not known, according to a fire officer.

SII chief Adar Poonawala said no one had been seriously hurt in the fire at its vaccine-making facility in Pune which is at the heart of India's fight against the coronavirus.

"Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. So far the most important thing is that there have been no lives lost or major injuries due to the fire, despite a few floors being destroyed," he tweeted.

Earlier, he told NDTV, "We are trying to rescue one or two people. That's our only priority now. We will assess the situation later on the damage on all other counts."

A massive fire broke out at a building that is under construction at Serum Institute but officials said it is unlikely to hit the production of Covishield, the coronavirus vaccine developed by the Oxford University and British-Swedish pharma firm AstraZeneca and being made at the facility.

An official at the local fire station told news agency AFP that six or seven firetrucks had reached the site as thick clouds of grey smoke were seen billowing from the sprawling campus in Pune, spread over 100 acres.

Eight or nine buildings are under construction at the complex to enhance the manufacturing capability.

Serum Institute -- founded in 1966 by Cyrus Poonawalla -- is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, producing 1.5 billion doses a year even before the coronavirus pandemic.

It makes vaccines against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella, which are exported to more than 170 countries.

The company has spent nearly a billion dollars in recent years enlarging and improving the giant Pune campus.

In January, Indian regulators approved two vaccines -- Covishield, produced by the Serum Institute, and Covaxin, made by local firm Bharat Biotech.

India began one of the world's biggest vaccine rollouts on Saturday, aiming to vaccinate 300 million people by July with both Covishield and Covaxin.

Many other countries are relying on the Serum Institute to supply them with the vaccine.