A major Indian company said on Sunday that in anticipation of the clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University, they are going to start producing the vaccine in two to three weeks so if the vaccine is successful, they will have millions of doses ready by October.
Serum Institute India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla said, “Our team has been working closely with Dr. Hill from Oxford University, and we are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in 2-3 weeks and produce 5 million doses per month for the first six months, following which we hope to scale up production to 10 million doses per month, according to the Deccan Chronicle.
Poonwalla continued, “We expect the (COVID-19) vaccine to be out in the market by September-October, only if the trials are successful with the requisite safety and assured efficacy. We will be starting trials in India for this vaccine hopefully over the next 2-3 weeks’ time … Following that, we have undertaken the decision to initiate manufacturing at our own risk. The decision has been solely taken to have a jump-start on manufacturing, to have enough doses available, if the clinical trials prove successful … Keeping the current situation in mind, we have funded this endeavor at a personal capacity and hopefully will be able to enlist the support of other partners to further scale-up vaccine production.”
Serum Institute India has stated they will not patent the vaccine; Poonwalla explained, “We will not patent Serum’s vaccine for COVID-19 and will make it available for all to produce and sell, not just in India but across the world … I hope that whichever company develops the vaccine does not get it patented and makes it available based on royalties or a commercial understanding to as many manufacturers across the world to make billions of dosages at a fast pace.”
In mid April, The Daily Wire reported that Oxford University professor Sarah Gilbert had informed The Sunday Times of London that human trials for a possible vaccine were scheduled to begin before the end of April and she was “80% confident” that her team could find a successful one by autumn. She stated, “I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine. It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 percent, that’s my personal view.”
The British government indicated “that it would be willing to fund the manufacture of millions of doses in advance if results looked promising. This would allow it to be available immediately to the public if it were proven to work,” according to the Times. Gilbert pointed out, “We don’t want to get to later this year and discover we have a highly effective vaccine and we haven’t got any vaccine to use. We don’t think we need facilities built, there are facilities that can be switched over.”
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