AIIMS Delhi director Dr Randeep Guleria on Wednesday said that India will have a vaccine against covid-19, which has killed over 149k people in the country, will be available within days. Terming the approval for Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the UK as a “big step forward”, he said that after roubust data, their Indian counterpart Serum Institute will also receive the regulatory approval soon.
“This is very good news that AstraZeneca got approval for its vaccine by UK regulatory authorities. They have robust data and in India and the same vaccine is being developed by the Serum Institute of India. This is a big step forward not only for India but many parts of the world,” Dr Guleria told ANI in an interview.
“This vaccine can be stored at two to eight degrees centigrade. Therefore it would be easy to store and transportation. Storage can be done using a simple fridge rather than what is required in the Pfizer vaccine of minus 70 degrees centigrade,” All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Director Dr Guleria said.
Further talking about India’s vaccination drive, he said, “India to roll out COVID-19 vaccines for a large part of the country and therefore we will see the vaccine available in our country in the very near future.”
, “Now, we have a data, and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved based on the studies in UK, Brazil and South Africa. There is also data from Serum Institute of India (SII). I think, once the data is shown to the regulatory authority, we should get approval for the vaccine in the county within a few days. I would say days rather than weeks or months.” Dr Guleria, who is a member of the national task force on Covid-19 management, said that the country has a “robust plan as far as the vaccination is concerned”.
Meanwhile, Pune-based SII has sought emergency approval for their vaccine candidate –Covishield– developed in collaboration with drug maker giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
On Monday, Adar Poonawakka had said that 40-50 million doses of covishield are ready to be rolled out in market for public use.