Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawala said on Monday that SII currently has 4-5 crore Covishield doses ready.
Mumbai| The Committee of Experts of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) of the Government of India on Friday approved the emergency use of Covishield, a vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca for Coronavirus. After getting the green signal from the expert panel, the vaccine will now be sent to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The Oxford vaccine has been produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in India. SII is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on Wednesday approved a vaccine developed by scientists at Oxford University and manufactured by AstraZeneca. After the approval of the vaccine in India, it is expected that the government may soon start a vaccination campaign.
In the midst of the havoc caused by the new strain of Coronavirus, the Expert Committee had an important meeting today on the emergency use of the vaccine before the dry run in all the states of the country. Three companies had applied for emergency approval in the country. These companies are – Pfizer, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. However, Pfizer did not show the presentation at an earlier date, so the expert panel reviewed the data from the other two companies. At the same time, it is believed that it will take time to approve the emergency use of Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covaxin’ as it is in the third phase of the trial.
Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawala said on Monday that SII currently has 4-5 crore Covishield doses ready. He hoped that soon the government would approve ‘Covishield’ for emergency use. Adar Poonawala said, “We already have 4-5 crore doses of vaccine. Once we get the regulatory approval in a few days, then after that the government will have the responsibility of how and how soon it buys it. We will make 300 million doses by July 2021.” He further said that India is part of ‘Covax’. Because of this, 50 per cent of what we make will be for India and Covax countries. India is a country with a large population and SII may give India the first dose of 50 million.
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