Kathmandu. After a Chennai volunteer of the “Covishield” vaccine experiment blamed the vaccine for degrading health conditions, the Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday rejected the allegations and demanded 100 crores as compensation.

Earlier this week, the 40-year-old sued the Pune-based firm for around 5 crores, arguing that the vaccine-induced an adverse reaction, including cognitive damage and an inability to return to life before being inoculated. The volunteer also requested a legal action to immediately halt the ongoing vaccine trial on 1,600 volunteers in India.

Hindu writes that the volunteer was taken in an ambulance to the emergency ward of the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Hospital, which reported that he was “in an altered mental state” and was “disoriented

“The allegations in the notice are malicious and misconceived. While the Serum Institute of India is sympathetic to the volunteer’s medical condition, there is absolutely no correlation with the vaccine trial and the medical condition of the volunteer. The volunteer is falsely laying the blame for his medical problems on the COVID vaccine trial,” the SII said in a statement.

Adding to this, SII said that since there was no correlation between the vaccine trial and the medical condition of the participant, the volunteer might be charged for compensation of damages exceeding Rs 100 crores.

A test for antibodies to COVID-19 to rule out the previous infection was offered to the volunteers who signed the ‘Informed Consent Form’ on September 29, 2020 and got a vaccine shot on October 1.

The Covishield vaccine is a double-dose vaccine experiment, with some volunteers administering the real vaccine and some receiving placebo 28 days apart.