Serum Institue plans to raise $1 billion for Covid-19 vaccine: Report

Serum Institute of India (SII) is in talks with private equity investors including Blackstone and KKR among other entities to raise up to $1 billion to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a report by The Economic Times.

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The company will be floating a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for its vaccine candidates. The fund that will be raised would go to the SPV and not Serum Institute for development of the vaccine. The report added that SII plans to draw down its fundraising mission by September.

“We are in talks with a few investors but there is no comment beyond that,” a Serum Institute spokesperson told the publication. The website reported that the fundraising exercise will be managed by Goldman Sachs, Citi and Avendus.

Earlier in August, Serum Institute, owned by Cyrus Poonawalla and his son Adar, received $150 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in funding for development, testing and distribution of two vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca-Oxford University and Novavax. Both vaccine candidates are aimed for distribution in low-middle income countries.

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SII plans to manufacture around 300-400 million doses by the end of this year, Adar Poonawalla had earlier said in an interview with DH. He added that the company is working on two of its own vaccine that will be released by the end of 2021.