Applying for emergency use of Covid-19 vaccine in 2 weeks: Serum Institute
New Delhi/IBNS: The Serum Institute will apply within two weeks for an emergency license to use the coronavirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca, the Indian vaccine maker's chief Adar Poonawalla said on Saturday after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"As of now, we don't have anything in writing with the government of India on how many doses they will purchase but the indication is that it would be 300-400 million doses by July 2021," he told reporters at a press conference.
"We are in the process of applying in the next two weeks for the emergency use," he added.
PM Modi on Saturday visited Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad and Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila as well as the vaccine candidate by Bharat Biotech.
"At the Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad, was briefed about their indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Congratulated the scientists for their progress in the trials so far. Their team is closely working with ICMR to facilitate speedy progress," PM Modi tweeted on Saturday. He later visited the Serum Institute in Pune too.
At the Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad, was briefed about their indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Congratulated the scientists for their progress in the trials so far. Their team is closely working with ICMR to facilitate speedy progress. pic.twitter.com/C6kkfKQlbl
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 28, 2020
Had a good interaction with the team at Serum Institute of India. They shared details about their progress so far on how they plan to further ramp up vaccine manufacturing. Also took a look at their manufacturing facility. pic.twitter.com/PvL22uq0nl
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 28, 2020
Poonawalla said, "At the moment the trials were more than enough for the efficacy. We might look at doing trials on group less than 18 years of age later on."
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