Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, will be prepared with 300 million doses of the Covishield Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine by July 2021. Adar Poonawalla, COO, SII, mentioned they have a stockpile of 40-50 million doses currently and more are getting developed every single week. Once approvals come in a couple of days, it will be down to the government to make a decision how a lot they can take and how rapidly they can take it, Poonawalla mentioned.
“We will be reaching 300 million doses by July 2021,” Poonawalla mentioned. “In the first one or two months the offtake would be slow. Once the logistics works out well, the roll-out we can expect in January 2021.”
Speaking on the approval for the Covishield vaccine, Poonawalla mentioned, there will be very good news from the UK really quickly. Emergency use licensure really should come in finish of December or early January and simultaneously we hope to get that in India as well, Poonawalla mentioned. “All the data has been submitted in India and the UK. We must respect the process of the regulators, who are evaluating data and documentation. Nobody wants to compromise on the safety and efficacy. SII, Oxford and AstraZeneca want to adhere to the highest levels.”
There was no concern of any sort and sufficient time had to be provided as the regulators overview the information from the worldwide multi-centric trials, he added. SII will be manufacturing about 60 million doses a month from the two plants in Pune. The third plant will be prepared by the finish of March 2021 and will take month-to-month capacity to one hundred million doses, Poonawalla mentioned. Initially, India will have a priority for the doses and there will be a lot of vaccines for India and other COVAX nations, he mentioned. There could be a shortage in the initial six months of 2021, but it will ease by August or September 2021 as other vaccine suppliers will start out supplying, Poonawalla mentioned. Around 50% of SII stock would be going to COVAX nations.
Apart from the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines, SII is also working on two of its personal Covid-19 vaccine candidates. “Our vaccine is to be launched in January 2022. We are staring at Phase-I trials in UK with Codagenix. There is another one RBD vaccine with SpyBiotech which is in Phase II trials,” Poonawalla mentioned.
SII on Monday launched India’s initial indigenously created pneumococcal vaccine known as Pneumosil, that has been created via a decade-lengthy collaboration with PATH and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is tailor-produced for India.
Dr Rajeev Dhere, chief scientist at SII, mentioned the new Pneumosil vaccine has a lot of significance for children and infants as there is no Covid-19 vaccine produced anyplace in the globe for children. Pneumonia is an outcome of the viral infection and as we do not have any Covid-19 vaccine for infant population so it becomes all the more significant to guard young children from this secondary infection, he mentioned. Vaccinating young children with this Pneumococcal vaccine will assist prevent secondary complications like pneumonia and it is more relevant in the present situations, Dr Dhere mentioned. Three shots of the vaccine would give children protection.
Poonawalla mentioned the ministry of wellness and household welfare has floated a tender for the Pnumococcal vaccine. “We hope to have coverage of 70-80% over next two to three years and bringing down mortality dramatically. The vaccine is roughly at half the price of some imported vaccines and will cost $10 in the private market and $3 in the government tenders,” he mentioned. There are about 1 lakh deaths every single year in India mainly because of pneumonia. With higher coverage, the nation could avert 60,000 to 70,000 deaths, he mentioned. With this launch, SII has turn into the only world’s third supplier of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.