Proud and excited for the next few months and looking forward to the vaccine, says SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institue of India, which is conducting phase-3 trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in India, has said he is proud and excited for the next few months and looking forward to the vaccine. The SII, which is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world, is also producing close to 2 crore (200 million) doses of the Oxford's coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine will be called Covishield in India
Taking it to Twitter, Adar Poonawalla said, "the origins of the Oxford vaccine with Professor Adrian Hill; standing next to the legendary Edward Jenner statue, here at @UniofOxford. Proud and excited for the next few months and looking forward to the vaccine."
Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine | What you need to know
- The Serum Institute of India would introduce candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax for coronavirus at less than Rs 250 per dose in India.
- The Pune-based institute would offer up to 100 million doses at a price capped at $3 for 92 low and middle-income countries (LMIC), including India, SII announced on Friday.
- As per SII, the vaccines will be available as early as the first half of 2021 after gaining approvals and qualifications from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- The SII also said that if successful, Novavax's candidate will be available to all 92 countries while AstraZeneca's candidate vaccine will be available to 57 Gavi-eligible countries.
- The development comes after the SII entered into a collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of COVAX agreement.
- Under the agreement, the SII will receive an upfront capital of $150 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Gavi to enhance the capacity to manufacture and distribute the potential vaccine to candidates on a large scale after gaining regulatory approval and WHO prequalification.
- The funding will support at-risk manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax.
- Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), commented, "India has demonstrated consistent capability in delivering low-cost and high-quality medical research, while also maintaining technical and scientific rigour.
- ICMR is deeply supportive of our cutting edge vaccine research and manufacturing prowess, of which SII is one prominent example. This partnership signifies yet another step in India's efforts to bolster the fight against this global pandemic."
