The Serum Institute of India (SII) is being sued.

A volunteer engaged for the trial of Corona vaccine has sued SII seeking damages of Rs 5 crore from SII. Accordiing to the legal notice the 40-year-old male volunteer developed serious neurological impairment after the under-trial vaccine was administered to him.

Yesterday Serum Institute (SII) counter-sued the aforesaid volunteer (who developed an adverse event following the administration of the Oxford vaccine in a late-stage trial in India) SII has termed the volunteer’s legal notice “malicious and misconceived” and it sought “damages in excess of Rs 100 crore” for maligning the reputation of the company.

SII had not made any public disclosure:

S.R. Ramakrishnan, the principal investigator at Sri Ramachandra Institute, Chennai, where the trial is being conducted, had said that “on the basis of extensive investigation we don’t think the adverse event was related to the vaccine”.

In a statement, SII said while the company was sympathetic with the volunteer’s medical condition, he was “falsely laying the blame for his medical problems on the vaccine trial”.

It is however surprising that SSI did not explain why it did not make public the occurrence of an adverse event during the trial. Remember that vaccine makers Oxford University and AstraZeneca had made public the occurrence of an adverse event during the trial conducted in the UK. The trial resumed after an investigation found it was not caused by the vaccine.

The vaccine is still in trial and whole world world is waiting with baited breath. But suits don’t care. Litigants are always ready to sue.