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India Begins Production of Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine #Covidshied; SII to Create 30 Crore Doses by Year End

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(Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)

The production of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine named Covidshield—one of the frontrunner #COVID19 vaccine candidates in the world—has begun in India.

#Covidshied

Initial estimates suggest at least one billion doses of the vaccine will be produced in India, which would make the country the largest producer of the COVID-19 vaccine on the planet.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

As per the latest developments, the Oxford-Astrazeneca joint-collaboration vaccine is now being manufactured on a large scale at the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, Maharashtra.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

The early production has commenced in order to meet the commercial requirements for Phase 3 of the vaccine’s clinical trials.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director of the SII, revealed the company intends to create 2-3 million (20-30 lakh) doses of the vaccine by the end of August 2020.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

And by the end of this year, the target will be to produce at least 300 million (30 crore) doses, Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of the Poonawalla Group (which includes the SII), told The Hindu.

Further, in a recent interview with The Times of India, Dr. Cyrus’ son and CEO of SII, Adar Poonawalla, insisted that his company intends to keep the vaccine prices below Rs 1000 to make it affordable for everyone.

He also expressed his intentions to make it available across 70 other low- and middle-income countries.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

Current Status of Covidshield Vaccine and Trials in India
Phase 1 of Covidshield’s clinical trials is complete, and it has shown promising results.

#CoronavirusOutbreak

Phases 2 and 3 are currently underway in Austria, and at this rate of developments, the final vaccine is expected to be ready by December 2020.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla further revealed that SII themselves are in the process of applying for a licence to start clinical trials in India.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19 #CoronavirusOutbreak

Once they receive the necessary permissions from the Drug Controller General of India, the company will commence the Phase 3 trials in Maharashtra by August 2020.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

Mumbai and Pune—the two COVID-19 hotspots in the state with 1.03 lakh and 59,000 confirmed cases (as of July 22), respectively—have been shortlisted for the clinical trials.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

Trial sites will be built across these cities, and by the end of August, between 4,000 to 5,000 people will be injected with the vaccine, so as to test its efficacy on the Indian population. These trials are scheduled to last over two months.

#Covidshied #coronavirus #covid19

The results of the #oxfordvaccine — published earlier this week in The Lancet— show an acceptable safety profile and produced increased antibody response to fight the novel #coronavirus.

Officially known as the chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), the #Covidshield has also shown to induce a marked increase in effective T-cell responses— an attribute that can ensure longer-term immunity.