Covidshield: Government may purchase 300-400 million doses of COVID vaccine by July 2021

The Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla informed on November 28, 2020, that the indications suggest that government may purchase 300-400 million doses of COVIDSHIELD vaccine by July 2021.

The head of SII talked about the purchase of doses after Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the company’s pandemic facility in Pune. Serum Institute of India has partnered with Oxford University and the global pharma giant AstraZeneca for COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covidshield.

Adar Poonawalla also added that as of now, the company doesn’t have anything in writing of how many doses the government will purchase but the indication is that three to four million doses by July 2021.

Emergency authorization of vaccine in the next two weeks:

The Chief of Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla informed that the company will apply for the emergency authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine in the next two weeks.

While informing about the progress of the COVID-19 vaccine, he continued that the company is in the process of submitting the data of its vaccine to the Drug Controller of India. After the vaccine is reviewed, it will be the decision of the Health Ministry to roll out the doses in the first and second quarters.

Distribution of COVID vaccine: India and COVAX countries on the priority

On the question of distribution of vaccine, the Chief of SII responded that the company’s priority is India and COVAX countries. He stated that the vaccine will be distributed initially in India and then COVAX countries which are mainly in Africa.

He informed that UK and European markets are being taken care of by Oxford and AstraZeneca but our priority is India and COVAX countries.

Scale of Covidshield production by SII:

Adar Poonawalla informed about the production of the vaccine and stated that SII has produced 40-50 million doses of COVID vaccine per month and they are planning of stretching it up to 100 million doses per month by February 2021.

While discussing the COVIDSHIELD vaccine, he informed that there was zero hospitalization during the trial of the vaccine and a 60% reduction in sterilizing immunity.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit to SII:

Prime Minister Modi on November 28, 2020, personally visited the manufacturing facility of Serum Institute in Pune to review the vaccine development.

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. pic.twitter.com/PvL22uq0nl

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 28, 2020

While sharing the news on Twitter, he informed about having a good interaction with the team at the Institute and they also shared the details about their progress so far.

While talking about his interaction with PM Modi, Poonawalla stated that he was amazed by PM’s knowledge of vaccines and their development. He added that we were amazed at what PM Modi already knows and there was very little to explain to him except going into detail on different variable vaccines and challenges that they can face ahead.