SII Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said that in the next two weeks, Serum Institute of India will apply for emergency authorization of COVID-19 vaccine. The Pune based drugmaker partnered with global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to produce COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford for low-and-middle-income countries. The COVID-19 vaccine, dubbed as Covishield, is currently in the Phase III clinical trial in India. In this regard, SII-CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that indications suggest that the Indian Government may purchase 300 to 400 million ‘Covidshield’ doses by July next year.

Covidshield is a highly effective vaccine against novel coronavirus. AstraZeneca and Oxford University earlier said that their drug had proved on an average 70% effective at stopping the virus after trying it on 23,000 people. But, top scientists in World Health Organization stated that more data is needed to determine if the Astrazeneca vaccine works.

The world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume said that India will be given first priority for the delivery of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. A collaboration between the Serum Institute of India (SII), GAVI, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is driving the manufacture and delivery of up to an additional 100 million doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC, a mechanism within the COVAX Facility.

A total of 172 economies are now engaged in discussions to potentially participate in COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved. COVAX currently has the world’s largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio – including nine candidate vaccines, with a further nine under evaluation and conversations underway with other major producers.

This development comes after AstraZeneca and Oxford University have acknowledged a manufacturing error which has raised questions about preliminary results of their experimental Covid-19 vaccine. The error was found when a study was carried out in a low dose and full dose setups. In the low-dose group, AstraZeneca said, the vaccine appeared to be 90 percent effective. In the group that got two full doses, the vaccine appeared to be 62 percent effective. Combined, the drugmakers said that the vaccine appeared to be 70 percent effective.

But that does not cancel out the hope of the Covidshield vaccine of AstraZeneca.

Andrea Taylor, assistant director of programs at Duke Global Health Innovation Center said, “The Pfizer vaccine is committed to its initial doses going to the EU and the US. And Moderna’s supply will be tied up with the US for at least probably the first half of 2021, so in light of that, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is really good news for the rest of the world.”

The vaccine developed at England’s Oxford University planned to be distributed in India is significantly cheaper than the others and, crucially, it would be far easier to transport and distribute in developing countries than its rivals since it does not need to be stored at freezing temperatures.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness