Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), has said the coronavirus vaccine may be ready by the end of this year and that the final price of the anti-virus dose will be announced in two months.
SII is part of an agreement with AstraZeneca, which along with Oxford University, has developed a vaccine that has reported satisfactory progress from the test results.
"We should have a vaccine by the end of this year. We will conduct trials in India on a few thousand patients in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)," Poonawalla told CNBC-TV18, adding the final pricing for the vaccine will be announced in two months.
Poonawalla had earlier said that by the end of August, between 4,000 to 5,000 people in Pune and Mumbai will be injected with the vaccine as part of trials scheduled to last over two month. He said the company aims to manufacture 300 million to 400 million doses by the year-end.
The institute has also inked a pact with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, to make 100 million doses of the vaccine. This is for low-and medium-income countries, and with a price cap of Rs 250 a dose.
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