According to the contribution report filed with the Election Commission of India, COVID-19 vaccine maker Serum Institute Of India (SII) is one of the biggest donor of Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party.
As per NCP’s contribution report of 2019-20 filed with the Election Commission of India, Serum Institute donated Rs 3 crore to the Pawar led party in a single transaction dated October 14, 2019.
As reported by Economic Times, apart from SII, NCP has reported the biggest funding from B G Shirke Construction group at Rs 20 crore. The Panchshil Corporate Bank is next on the tally bringing in Rs 7.5 crores.
Infrastructure firms Lodha developers and Modern Road makers have pitched in Rs 5 crore each. Member of Parliament Supriya Sule has sent in about Rs 7 lakh in several tranches.
Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine is being manufactured by SII in India as Covishield.
Recently, on November 21, a forty-year-old participant in AstraZeneca’s clinical trial who lives in India sent a legal notice to the Serum Institute of India alleging that the vaccine caused him to develop acute neuroencephalopathy, or brain damage.
In the notice, the participant said he “must be compensated, in the least, for all the sufferings that he and his family have undergone and are likely to undergo in the future.”
In response, the Serum Institute claimed the participant’s medical complications are unrelated to the vaccine trial and said it would take “legal action” against the brain-damaged participant for maligning the company’s reputation, seeking damages in excess of $13 million.
“This is the first time I have ever heard of a sponsor threatening a trial participant,” Amar Jesani, editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, said of the incident. The Serum Institute has received at least $18.6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has a deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture a billion doses of the vaccine.
As reported by GreatGameIndia earlier, the developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have direct ties to British Eugenics Movement.
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