India May Get 100 Million Doses of Oxford’s Coronavirus Vaccine 'Covishield' By December

Pune-based SII is the world's largest vaccine maker and plans to have 100 million doses ready by December 2020.

(File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: The coronavirus vaccine candidate Covishield, which is jointly being developed by the Oxford University, British Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and the Indian vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII), has entered the third phase of clinical human trials, after which the SII has ramped up the production of the vaccine.  According to the media reports, Pune based SII is the world's largest vaccine maker and plans to have 100 million doses ready by December 2020 for an inoculation drive that could begin across India that same month. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said the Indian government may give emergency authorization as early as December, based on the final-stage trial performance data of AstraZeneca’s candidate. “They are waiting for the outcome of the final-stage trial data. If it shows AstraZeneca's candidate gives effective protection from the virus, the institute may get emergency authorization from New Delhi next month,” he said. The Serum Institute of India has partnered with AstraZeneca to produce at least one billion doses of the vaccine. Until now, around 40 million doses of Covishield have been manufactured, under the at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling license from the Drugs Controller General of India. Vaccine candidate Covishield, which has been developed with a master seed from Oxford University/Astra Zeneca has been developed at the SII Pune laboratory. The promising results of the trials so far give confidence that Covishield could be a realistic solution to the pandemic. The vaccine made in the UK is currently being tested in large efficacy trials in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, and the US. Currently, in the vaccine race, India has four different contenders, including the Covishield. While two of them are indigenously developed, the Zydus Cadila ZycoV-D and the Bharat Biotech Covaxin. The Russian vaccine, Sputnik V is also running rounds of clinical human testing in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s lab.