In last stop of 3-city vaccine tour, PM Modi visits Serum Institute in Pune

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited Serum Institute of India in Pune as part of efforts to get a first-hand perspective of the preparations, challenges, and roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens against COVID-19.

Serum Institute of India, the largest producer of vaccines in the world by volume, has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University for vaccine against COVID-19.

Earlier in the day, he visited Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila.

“Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work. Government of India is actively working with them to support them in this journey,” PM Modi tweeted.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad, reviews the development of #COVID19 vaccine candidate ZyCOV-D pic.twitter.com/vEhtNMf1YE

— ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2020

He also visited Bharat Biotech facility at Hyderabad as part of his three-city visit to personally review the vaccine development and manufacturing process against COVID-19.

At the Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad, was briefed about their indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Congratulated the scientists for their progress in the trials so far. Their team is closely working with ICMR to facilitate speedy progress. pic.twitter.com/C6kkfKQlbl

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 28, 2020

On November 24, Prime Minister while speaking with Chief Ministers of various states over the deteriorating pandemic situation in their states at a virtual meeting advised the states to establish cold storage facilities for COVID-19 vaccine beforehand and suggested them to prepare and send a plan for its distribution to the Central government.

PM’s visit has encouraged us in doing more: Zydus Cadila chairperson

Zydus Cadila chairperson Pankaj K Patel said on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Zydus Biotech Park here had encouraged the staff to “doing more and doing fast” in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine and his knowledge, wisdom and guidance have been valuable.

Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work. Government of India is actively working with them to support them in this journey. pic.twitter.com/ZIZy9NSY3o

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 28, 2020

“Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Zydus Biotech Park. This visit has encouraged us in doing more and doing fast. His knowledge and wisdom about the problem and his guidance have been valuable for our scientific staff and for all of us,” Patel said in a video message. He said the pharma company is continuously working for providing a safe and efficacious vaccine against COVID-19.

“The scientists, all 18,000 of them and 25,000 plus Ziduns are continuously thriving and working for providing safe and efficacious vaccine for better COVID treatment and diagnostics,” he said.