Adar Poonawala, CEO of Pune based Serum Institute of India, stated yesterday that his research team is going to develop Covid-19 vaccine by October-November 2020. The institute hopes to develop one billion doses of the vaccine by the next year for India and other low and middle income countries.
The institute, which is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has tied up with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to manufacture and produce the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford. It has got a nod from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture the pneumococcal inoculation.
The CEO planned to keep the cost of the vaccine beneath Rs 1,000. Currently Phase 1 and 2 trials are going on and is found to be efficacious. He said, “in the event that the Phase 3 trials are effective, we are sure that ‘Covishield’ will be one of the principal vaccines to be available in the market”.
With the administration optimizing and fast tracking the vaccine approval process, the Serum Institute is reportedly anticipating to get permits soon for Phase 3 human trials from DCGI and would resume likely with 4,000-5,000 healthy individuals.