Early December may see anti COVID vaccine for use: Adar Poonawala
The global pandemic is now 7 months old. With research on the vaccine going on in full swing across the globe, now the final phase of human trial is nearing.
Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute, said that Covishield, a coronavirus vaccine candidate, could be ready as early as December this year, while the first batch, comprising 100 million doses, may see the market by early 2021.
He further added that Health Ministry approval plays a key role in the availability date of the vaccine. For the uninitiated, India is the manufacturing partner of Covishield, developed jointly by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute’s and AstraZeneca. The Pune-based firm, SII, is looking after the trials at 17 trial sites across India.
A UK media report earlier this month said Covishield, which is also being tested there, could be cleared by health regulators in that country by end-2020 and be rolled out within six months.
“We are aiming for 100 million available doses at first. This should be available by Q2-Q3 of 2021,” he said when asked about the availability of the booster shots”, said Poonawala
He also dismissed any safety concern. “The vaccine is very safe. Thousands of people have had it in India and abroad so we’re cracking on. On track with no safety concerns,” he said.
Besides, two other vaccine candidates are also being tested across the country.
Indigenous vaccine developer Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, is conducting Phase-1 and Phase-2 clinical trials of vaccine candidate COVAXIN.
The third vaccine candidate under human trial is ZyCoV-D, developed by Zydus Cadila. This candidate is now under Phase-1 and Phase-2 of clinical trials.
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