On Saturday, Adar Poonawalla said that the Serum Institute will apply within two weeks for the emergency use of its covid vaccine which is being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.
Poonawalla told reporters: “As of now, we don’t have anything in writing with the government of India on how many doses they will purchase but the indication is that it would be 300-400 million doses by July 2021.”
He said: “We are in the process of applying in the next two weeks for the emergency use.”
On Saturday, PM Modi visited SII to personally review the development of coronavirus vaccine and the manufacturing process.
PM office said, the visit was meant to help him get a first-hand perspective of the preparations, challenges and roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens.
After his visit PM Modi tweeted: “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.”
Assuring about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, Mr Poonawalla said: “At the moment the trials were more than enough for the efficacy. We might look at doing trials on group less than 18 years of age later on.”
He said: “We are manufacturing 50-60 million doses per month. After January it will be 100 million doses.”
