The Serum Institute of India (SII), the city-based pharmaceutical major that developed the country's first intranasal vaccine to fight H1N1 infection, has destroyed around 30 lakh doses of the vaccine. The stock was worth approximately Rs 5 crore, with a single shot costing Rs 158. According to the medical fraternity, this an extremely unfortunate development, particularly at this time when more and more H1N1 cases are being reported once again. The vaccine could have helped people develop immunity against the deadly virus.


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According to experts, the vaccine, Nosovac, was launched in July 2010 in response to the pandemic and did very well initially. However, as the number of cases abated and immunity developed, the sale of the vaccine too went down. Big money was spent by SII on H1N1 vaccine production. Approximately Rs 47 crore was spent in setting up a new manufacturing facility only to handle H1N1 vaccine while Rs 22 crore was spent on getting two specialised machines besides a team of 100-odd people who were working on the vaccine development with 15 core group of scientists and researchers.