Akshi Kamboj (intern journalist) Oxford university on Monday announced satisfactory progress of it’s AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine. Serum Institute of India partnered with the varsity and decided to start the trials by the end of August. 5000 Indian volunteers will participate in the trials and if all goes as planned, the vaccine will be launched by June next year. the trials will take place in Pune and Mumbai because of the highest number of patients in the region. Unlike the exclusion of older people in the initial phase, the Indian trials will include older volunteers as the vaccine was proven safe in the initial trials.
Head of the serum institute of India, Adar Poonawalla said that 50 percent of the manufactured vaccines will be provided to India and the rest will be supplied to 60 other countries. He also added that the company is putting USD 200 million at risk by manufacturing nearly 300 million doses before the final nod to launch the vaccine in the market.
“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 immunize the entire world”.
said Poonawalla in a press conference
The vaccine will be named “covishield” and will cost nearly 1000 INR per dose.
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