What is the name of Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine in India?

New Delhi : With positive results in hand, Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine has gain momentum to get a closer release date. Serum Institute of India, headed by Adar Poonawalla is all set to conduct trials for the vaccine in India, and begin production of the doses as well.

He has claimed that 50 per cent of the doses produced by his company will be provided in India and the rest will be given to the world. Poonawalla also said that the vaccines are mostly bought and paid for by the governments as a part of immunization programmes. He told a newspaper that the company will try to keep the vaccine's price under 1,000 INR.

"We have said that we want to give half of our (vaccine) production to India and the other half to other countries on a pro-rata basis every month. The government has been supportive. We need to understand that this is a global crisis and people across the world need to be protected. It's important that we equally immunise the entire world," Poonawalla said, reported India Today.

Another news report has claimed that Oxford's AZD122 will be called Covishield in India. It has been learned that if the trials show positive results then it will be made available in India by November this year.

As for the trials, more than 5,000 people have enrolled themselves for clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine to be conducted in India by SII, and trials are estimated to begin by the end of August.