The Serum Institute of India said it is going to start
making a still-experimental coronavirus vaccine while it is still on
trial.
The Serum Institute of India which produces 1.5 billion
vaccine doses each year for an array of diseases said it will start
production before the autumn target date of the Oxford trial.
The Oxford Vaccine Group says it hopes to complete human trials on the hAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in September.
But Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India told the Times of India on Monday that he would not wait that long.
He said the institute would produce five million units of the vaccine a month, for six months, to get ahead of demand.
"We
are not waiting for the trials to get over in September in UK, and then
start production here. The decision at our own risk and cost has been
solely taken to get a jump-start on manufacturing, to have enough doses
available, if the clinical trials prove successful," he said.
"We
aim to manufacture four to five million doses per month for the first
six months, following which, we might scale up to 10 million doses per
month, based on the success of trials. We are looking to build it up to
20-40 million doses by September-October."
"We are planning to
make the vaccine available at an affordable price of around 1,000 rupees
($13) in India," he said. Drug prices vary widely around the world, and
the same treatment often costs many times more in other countries.
6
monkeys given an experimental coronavirus vaccine from Oxford did not
catch COVID-19 after heavy exposure, raising hopes for a human vaccine
The
Jenner Institute, working as part of the Oxford Vaccine Group, is
leading the global race for a coronavirus vaccine. The UK government has
pledged £20 million, or $25 million, to the trial.
The vaccine
given to the rhesus macaques is called hAdOx1 nCoV-19. Human trials
began Thursday and are expected to be finished in September. The process
of developing a vaccine is long, and even having a usable product by
September would be unusually fast.
