A day after the famous magazine Lancet published data of the first human trial of Corona vaccine developed by Oxford University, Serum Institute of India declared that 50 percent of the vaccines manufactured by his firm will be supplied to India and the rest to other countries.
Serum Institute is one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines round the world. Its CEO, Adar Poonawala said that the vaccine will mostly be purchased by governments and people will receive them free of cost through immunisation programmes.
Poonawalla said that if the trials go fine and the results come out to be favourable, Serum Institute of India partner with Oxford University to manufacture this vaccine. He said the firm is also seeking regulatory clearances to conduct Phase 3 human trials of the Oxford University vaccine in India so that the vaccine can be manufactured at mass scale if the results are favourable.
As per him, if the trials go fine, Serum Institute will be able to produce a few million doses by the end of November and around 300-400 million doses by the first quarter of 2021.
Speaking about the price component of this vaccine, Poonawala said that its too early to say about the costing, but the vaccine should be provided free of cost to all the people through immunisation programme.
“I don’t see any citizen having to pay for this vaccine… or at least they should not. It (coronavirus pandemic) is a national security issue and the government must put in its efforts, and they are doing it,” he said.
