Serum Institute of India, based in Pune, is looking forward to seek the emergency use authorization of covid-19 vaccine, Covisheild, in the next two week, said company’s CEO Adar Poonawalla.
The development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer on Saturday to review vaccine development.
Serum Institute has collaborated with Britain’s AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University to develop their vaccine candidate in India for 60 middle and low income countries. In an earlier statement, Mr. Poonawalla had said that they would be manufacturing more than 100 million doses of their vaccine candidate with 40 million already manufactured.
He had also said that India would be the first to get the vaccine and after that it will be sent to Covax Countries.
He also said that there will be no delay in the roll out of the vaccine as trials are sufficient to prove the efficacy. The new study proposed by the developers will not effect emergencY authorization process in Europe and India, he added.
“What we might have to do is trials for under 18 candidates. That is the way all vaccines go. You first have to establish safety for adults and then go for studies on the impact on children,” a report quoted Poonawalla.
“The central government has suggested it wants 300 to 400 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by us. We are manufacturing 50-60 million doses per month. After January, it will be 100 million doses,” said Mr. Poonwalla.
Meanwhile, after his visit to SII, the Prime Minister on Saturday tweeted, “Had a good interaction with the team at Serum Institute of India. They shared details about their progress so far on how they plan to further ramp up vaccine manufacturing. Also took a look at their manufacturing facility.”
Besides Covishield, Serum Institute of India is also manufacturing NovaVax which they said is two months behind AstraZeneca.
