Pune based Institute to begin producing possible coronavirus vaccine next month

Pune based Serum Institute of India today said it plans to start production of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University in the next two to three weeks and hopes to bring it to the market by October if the human clinical trials are successful. The vaccines will be manufactured at the company’s facility in Pune as building a new facility for Covid-19 vaccines would have taken around two-three years, he added.The company has partnered with Oxford University as one of the seven global institutions manufacturing the vaccine. ''SII will be manufacturing the vaccine in anticipation of clinical trials succeeding by September-October in the UK. Following that, SII has undertaken the decision to initiate the manufacture at their own risk. The decision has been solely taken to have a jump-start on manufacturing, to have enough doses available, if the clinical trials work,” said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of the Indian vaccine major, said in a statement.

If the trials are a success, scientists hope to have one million doses ready by September, and to dramatically scale up manufacturing after that. “Our team has been working closely with Dr Hill ( professor Adrian Hill) from Oxford University, and we are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in two-three weeks and produce five million doses per month for the first 6 months, following which, we hope to scale up production to 10 million doses per month,” Poonawalla said, according to PTI. The company earlier said it will not patent any Covid-19 vaccine which it develops. Asked about that stand, Poonawalla reiterated: “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.”Whosoever makes and develops the vaccine will need multiple partners to manufacture it, he added. “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,” Poonawalla said.