India to get Oxford COVID-19 vaccine by November: Serum Institute
New Delhi : Coronavirus continues to spread and create panic and fear among people. This new strain of coronavirus causes respiratory infection. There is no cure, vaccine or drug to treat coronavirus and that is the biggest fear that we're all living in. Numerous companies and researchers across the globe are working hard to find a cure or a vaccine that can put an end to this global pandemic and give us all some sort of relief from this chaos that has taken a toll on all of our lives. One such attempt is being made by Oxford University who has licensed the manufacturing of the vaccine to the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Quite recently the results from the early stages of the clinical trials of this COVID-19 vaccine was published in a medical journal, the Lancet. According to this report, Oxford University's vaccine is safe for use and also induces an immune response. The Serum Institute of India has now said that they plan on applying for the regulatory approvals for clinical trials in India and will begin the mass production of the vaccine in large quantities. But more importantly, they have started manufacturing the vaccine which is being called the Covishield vaccine parallel with the clinical trials.
If things go well then this vaccine will be available in India by November and it will be priced at Rs. 1000. In an interview with NDTV, Adar Poonawala, the chief of the Serum Institute of India told them that the decision to push in 200 million dollars into an untested drug took just 30 minutes and that the risks were compounded by the fact that it the clinical trials in the remaining phases does not reap good results the entire stock will have to be destroyed. The Serum Institute is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer and they have claimed that it could take up to 2 years to inoculate all the people in India. The Serum Institute is confident that they will move onto the phase 3 trials by August and will get their results in about 2 and a half months or so and if things go well with the authorities they will be able to successfully launch the vaccine in India. The Serum Institute will be able to manufacture 60 million doses in a year out of which 30 million will be exported to help the other nations across the globe.
