COVID-19: SII CEO Adar Poonawalla Urges Media to Refrain from Reporting on Interim Data about Patients on Clinical Trials

New Delhi: Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla today urged the media to refrain from reporting on interim data coming in about patients on the SII – Covishield clinical trials.

Poonawalla asked the media to “not bias the process” and said that all relevant data would be published after the clinical trials wrap up in two months.

Taking to Twitter, he said, “I would kindly request the media to refrain, from reporting on interim data coming in about patients on the SII – Covishield clinical trials. Let us not bias the process. Let us respect the process and stay patient for two months, all the relevant data will be published soon”.

I would kindly request the media to refrain, from reporting on interim data coming in about patients on the SII – Covishield clinical trials. Let us not bias the process. Let us respect the process and stay patient for two months, all the relevant data will be published soon.

— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) August 27, 2020

Serum Institute is manufacturing the Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
Earlier on August 23, SII clarified on news about availability of the vaccine in 73 days.

“Serum Institute of India would like to clarify that the current claims surrounding COVISHIELD’s availability in the media are completely false and conjectural”, the company said in a statement.