CEO and owner of Pune’s largest vaccine manufacture, Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla confirmed on Saturday that his company has entered into an agreement with the multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with the aim of supplying around one billion doses of the vaccines to India as well as nations with a low and middle-income group of the population prior to the end of 2020 to battle the spread of the deadly coronavirus infection and ensure fair and equal distribution of the vaccine in these countries.
The AZD122 vaccine has been developed at Oxford University on a large scale and the Serum Institute has invested around $100 million on this vaccine that is a potential cure for the infection. The deal would help in allowing global access to the vaccine in addition to the company's latest partnerships with the UK and US.
"We finally have a deal signed with @AstraZeneca, to exclusively manufacture their product for India and @gavi countries, up to a billion doses annually. This will ensure supply and access to all Indians," Poonawalla tweeted.
In a press conference, Poonawalla was quoted as saying, “Serum Institute of India is delighted to partner with AstraZeneca in bringing this vaccine to India as well as low and middle-income countries. Over the past 50 years, SII has built significant capability in vaccine manufacturing and supply globally. We will work closely with AstraZeneca to ensure fair and equitable distribution of the vaccine in these countries.”
Serum Institute of India is also working with Themis in Austria and other two vaccine candidates in addition to Oxford and Codagenix.
The pressure increases day by day as the world sees a hike in the number of Covid-19 cases both internationally and domestically and the development of vaccines is the only hope for the world leaders to resume their operations hampered by the pandemic, but till now nothing has proven effective to combat the virus.
On Sunday, India witnessed an upsurge in COVID-19 tally with 11,458 cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). Around 386 deaths have been reported in 24 hours.
