Serum Institute's Covid-19 vaccine to be ready for masses by 2021, says Adar Poonawalla

A day after promising results on the Oxford-Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine were out, Serum Institute's CEO Adar Poonawalla has come to the limelight. Serum Institute said that it will start human trials in August, produce and supply over one billion doses of the vaccine under the brand name Covishield.

Read: Serum Institute to begin coronavirus vaccine trials on 5,000 volunteers

The Pune-based company has partnered with Oxford University as one of the seven global institutions manufacturing the vaccine. It is now seeking regulatory approval from DCGI to conduct phase-III clinical trials, following which the vaccine will be produced at mass scale. The Serum Institute will manufacture and supply the vaccine in India and in over 60 other countries with a combined population of 3 billion. However, Poonawalla said that despite the promising signs, the study is yet to conclude whether it can 100 percent protect a person from Covid-19, which will become evident only after the phase III results.

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Speaking to Barkha Dutt on the vaccine's August deadline, he said, "We are on track, and submitting our proposals within 48 hours to start phase II/III study for licensure to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) office. Within two weeks, they should give us the permission and two weeks after that we should get into patients. The manufacturing will also simultaneously start in August."

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Poonawalla also told News 18 that after the trials' completion (by November), the vaccine could hit the shelves for the masses between December and the first quarter of 2021.

SII, he said, is putting $200 million at risk by manufacturing nearly 300 million doses before the final nod to launch the vaccine in the market.

"50% of our Covid vaccines will be for India, people won't have to buy them, govts will pay, 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 immunise the entire world," Adar Poonawalla told India Today.

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I don't think any individual will have to pay for it because the vaccines will mostly be bought by governments and then distributed free through the immunisation programmes," he said. He also added that the Institute has committed to provide the vaccine at $2-3 per dose to African countries

"It is in line with our philosophy of giving things at a very affordable price. We don't want to make a profit at all in the pandemic state" Poonawalla said. He also said that the vaccine has no severe side effects.

However, the CEO added, "There has been no evidence of the mutation of Covid-19 and the theory should not be taken seriously. Even as the vaccine is yet to be produced, I strongly advocate the use of BCG vaccine for everyone, which is an immunity booster with no side-effects and is better than homeopathy medicines.”