India To Have 100Mil Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine Ready By December

According to Adar Poonawalla, chief of Pune-based Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world has boosted its production of Covishield, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Serum Institute of India has partnered with AstraZeneca to produce Covishield, a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University.

Their goal is to manufacturer a minimum of one billion doses of Covishield. Poonawalla said that next year, with early approval, the institute could produce more vaccine. These vaccines will be shared on a 50:50 basis with other South Asian countries as well as vaccine purchasing organizations backed by WHO to provide for poor nations.

Earlier, in an interview with NDTV, the CEO of Serum Institute, said that the vaccine could officially be released in the country in January 2021.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is co-developed by Oxford University. In India, it is the most advanced in terms of human testing. The company added that the company, along with the Indian Council of Medical Research, will work to have “early availability” of the vaccine in India.

Clinical trial site fees for the COVID-19 vaccines had been funded by the ICMR. The ICMR and the Serum Institute are currently carrying out the vaccine’s Phase 2/3 clinical trials in 15 different centers around the country.

Meanwhile, ICMR and SII recently announced that the enrollment for Covishield’s Phase III clinical trials had been completed with 1,600 participants on October 31, 2020. These volunteers have received doses of the vaccine and will remain under observation.

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