50% of vaccines for Oxford will be for India: Serum Institute

London, Ta. 22 July 2020, Wednesday

There has been news of a relief with the Corona vaccine. According to a report by the Serum Institute of India in Pune, 30-40 lakh doses of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be ready by December. According to SII president Adar Poonawala, 50 per cent of the vaccine for Oxford will be for India.

Adar Poonawala said Covidshield could be the first corona vaccine to defeat the corona virus if tested successfully in Britain and India. The Serum Institute of India is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and has been selected by Oxford University and AstraZeneca to develop the vaccine. The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, has no side effects.

The results of the vaccine, published in the Lancet Journal, show a strong T-cell immune response in people who have been given the vaccine. Adar Poonawala said they would start a trial of the Covid-19 vaccine on 5,000 voluntary Indians by August and if all goes well, the vaccine would be launched by June next year.

Poonawala said in an interview that the vaccine would be mass-produced by August. According to him, by December, they will have prepared 30-40 lakh doses of the vaccine and by the first three months of 2021, the vaccine will have reached most of the population of India.

Poonawala assured that the vaccine would be sold at a very affordable price. According to him, efforts are being made to keep the price of the vaccine at around Rs 1,000 or less. "We do not think that any country or its citizens will need to buy this vaccine because the governments of the country will buy it and distribute it for free," he said.

According to the SII report, the company has staked about 200 200 million to prepare 300 million doses before launching the vaccine in the market. Developing level vaccines will be tested on 4000-5000 volunteers in Pune and Mumbai.