Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India, announced that the much-awaited Covid vaccine will soon be available pan India. If everything goes well as planned, the Corona vaccine will be distributed in December and the Serum Institute plans to distribute ten crore doses. AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covishield vaccine in partnership with the Serum Institute of India will be made available, once the emergency license is obtained. However, the final clearance might be expected next year.
Hundred crore doses?
The Serum Institute of India in collaboration with Oxford mulls producing ten million doses of Covid vaccine. It is also to be noted that half of these vaccines produced will be sent to poorer countries. Meanwhile, the final trials of Covishield have yielded positive results. The Serum Institute had inked deals with a total of five companies for Corona vaccines, which are in the final phases of the trial.
AstraZeneca has already produced nearly 4 million doses in the past two months. A vaccine being developed by Novavax will also be produced soon. The American Vaccine Company (Novavax) had signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India. Covishield is being produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Already, Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India has expressed satisfaction over the performance of both the vaccines. On the other hand, Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca said that arrangements are being made for large-scale corona vaccine distribution in December.