Expecting Covid vaccine approval soon; 50 million doses ready: Serum Institute CEO

NEW DELHI: The Serum Institute of India on Monday said it has already produced nearly 50 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and is expecting emergency use approval from the Indian and UK regulators in the "next few days."


“You will be hearing some good news from the UK very soon,” Serum’s chief executive Adar Poonawalla told reporters, adding that approval from the Indian regulator would likely follow shortly.

The Pune-based company, which has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency nod, recently submitted updated data from the clinical trials of "Covishield", the local name of the

AstraZeneca

vaccine.



Government sources said that the data submitted by Serum was found to be "satisfactory", indicating that the vaccine may be approved soon.

"We have already manufactured 40-50 million dosages of the vaccine. The rollout of the vaccine is expected to be a bit slow in the initial phase due to logistics issue and is expected to pick up once things get sorted," Poonawalla said.

He noted that the company plans to ramp up the vaccine production to 100 million dosages per month by March next year with the launch of SII's third manufacturing facility.

Poonawalla said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could be approved in the UK soon. By next month, the vaccine can also be approved in India, he noted.

The SII CEO said India would get the majority of vaccines produced next year with some part of the production also going to other markets as part of Covax - a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level.

"Some shortage can be expected in the first six months. Things will ease out by August-September as other manufacturers will also start supplies," he added.

India wants to deliver 600 million coronavirus shots in the next six to eight months starting in January. The country’s drug regulator is also considering similar approvals for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and another developed by India’s Bharat Biotech.

The government plans to inoculate around 30 crore “priority” population in the first phase of the vaccination drive.

This will include healthcare and frontline workers and those at higher risk of infection such as people over 50 years of age and others below 50 years but with severe co-morbidities that can lower immunity and increase chances of death due to Covid-19 infection.

Mock drills
Meanwhile, four states - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab - began a trial run of the vaccine delivery systems on Monday, with health authorities checking everything from their technology platforms to the storage infrastructure that will be required to inoculate millions.

“The exercise is basically a mock drill for our healthcare workers on how to run the whole vaccination process and system,” Gujarat health commissioner Jaiprakash Shivahare told Reuters.

State health officials had set up 19 vaccination centres, each with 25 dummy beneficiaries played by health workers, who would help test out the entire inoculation sequence, including online monitoring systems, Shivahare said.

The government has also trained participants who will administer the vaccine.

(With inputs from agencies)

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