India may allow emergency Corona vaccine by Dec-end |
As the COVID-19 cases surge in more and more states of India, the positive news came from AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Monday saying that their Covid-19 vaccine was up to 90% effective. This brightens the prospects of the much-awaited shot being available in India in the next few months. Serum Institute of India, AstraZeneca`s strategic manufacturing partner for the development of vaccines in India, said efficacy data from the Indian trials will be released in a month and the company will apply for emergency use by December-end. The company said it will have 100 million doses ready by the end of next month and these will be made available for an early rollout. It has the capacity to ramp up production to 400 million doses by April 2021. It had earlier said it would price the vaccine at $2 a shot. Serum Institute will get approval to introduce the vaccine once it submits its data, and gets market authorization by the regulatory authority in the UK for the AstraZeneca shot. The AstraZeneca shot is one of India`s best hopes for an early vaccine. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna`s work that have shown encouraging results, the AstraZeneca shot can be stored in a fridge at 3-8 degrees Celsius and won`t require a super cold storage chain. In addition, phase-3 trials of the vaccine have been conducted by Serum Institute in the country.
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