CORONA VACCINE FOR LESS THAN RS. 1000! WHEN IS IT COMING TO THE INDIAN MARKET? REPORT

Serum Institute of India (SII), world’s largest maker of vaccines in terms of volume recently announced its partnership with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine candidate that is being developed by University of Oxford. Adar Poonawalla SII’s chief executive officer has said that the vaccine will launch under the brand name of Covishield in the UK and in India if it is successful. 

The potential vaccine candidate has shown promising results in the first phase of human trials according to scientists. It reportedly appears to be safe and induces a strong immune response within the body. AstraZeneca has collaborated with Pune- based Serum Institute which is set to manufacture and supply the vaccine to India as well as 60 other countries, who have a combined population of 3 billion. 

Launch Date

The institute is likely to produce 3 to 4 million doses of the vaccine by the end of December 2020, Poonawalla told the media. 

“We will be going for large scale manufacturing in mid-August-early-August… By the end of this year, we should be able to produce 3 to 4 million doses come end of December. That’s the target and I hope we can do that,” Poonawalla said in an interview to a news channel.

“The company will manufacture up to 70 million doses of the vaccine per month up to October as part of the special permission and plans to take it up to 100 million per month by December so that it is ready to hit the market once the final approvals are in place,” Hindustan Times reported. 

“If this goes to plan, the phase three trials will take two months after the patients get injected and the vaccine gets a final nod by November,” he said.

He also added that in such a scenario, it can get introduced either in the “first quarter of 2021”. He mentioned that the company has already manufactured around 2-3 million doses of the vaccine for getting the process correct and also stabilizing its machinery but he clarified that these will never be used on humans.

He added, “it is extremely likely that the Covid-19 vaccine would require two or more doses, like in the case of antidotes for measles and other.” diseases.“We have got a lot on the line and bet big on this (Oxford-AstraZeneca) candidate. And we really hope it works."

Price of Covishield

Poonawala stated that the vaccine is likely to reach Indian people in large numbers by the first quarter of 2021.

“We are going to give it at a very affordable price… We are planning to put it at about Rs 1000 or less than that… I don’t think any citizen of India or of any other country is going to have to pay for it because it is going to be bought by the government and distributed free,” he said.

“It is going to be very affordable… in line with our general philosophy of giving everything at a very affordable price. We generally don’t want to make a profit at all, in fact, in the Covid crisis and after the pandemic is over, we may look at a more commercial price that could be available in the market,” he added.

Trial

The trials of this vaccine candidate will start by the end of August with around 5,000 Indian volunteers. 

“The vaccine under development will be injected into 4,000-5,000 volunteers in Pune and Mumbai, which have high rates of coronavirus infections, as part of the crucial phase three of the trial which will determine if the antidote can be introduced in the market or not,” he said.

Poonawalla stated that unlike the exclusion of older people in the initial phase of trials at Oxford, the Indian trials will include elderly people and health workers as well because the initial phase has proven that the vaccine is safe to use.