COVID-19 Vaccine Likely To Be Available By January: Adar Poonawala

Bhubaneswar: Adar Poonawala, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Serum Institute of India said that a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 may be likely available in India by January 2021.

The Serum Institute of India(SII) is in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca to produce the potential COVID-19 vaccine Covidshield for low-middle income countries.

Covishield is being developed by the University of Oxford and is currently in the phase 2/3 clinical trial in the country.

In an interview with Mint, SII Adar Poonawala said, “Based on the success of the trials in India and the United Kingdom, and if approvals from regulatory bodies are in place in time, then we can expect the vaccine to be available in India by January 2021, only if its proven immunogenic and efficacious.”

“The current data pertaining to the trials show that there are no immediate concerns pertaining to Covishield,” Poonawalla added.

“So far, thousands of people have had it in India and abroad with no safety concerns,” he further explained. However it will take two to three years to ascertain the long-term effects of the vaccine, he said.

SII aims to manufacture about 60-70 million doses, and stretch it up to 100 million doses of the vaccine per month and should be able to reach there over the next few months.”, added Poonawala.