Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India, has said that a safe and effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus may be available in the country by early next year. The CEO of the Pune-based firm, which is testing and manufacturing the Oxford’s Covishield vaccine in India, said a COVID-19 vaccine is expected by January 2021 if trials succeed and approvals from regulatory bodies are in place in time.
Results of the late-stage trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, (AZD1222), are likely to be releases next month even as Britain gets ready to roll out a potential candidate in late December or early 2021. Oxford Vaccine Trial Chief Investigator Andrew Pollard told British lawmakers that working whether or not the vaccine worked would likely come this year, after which the data would have to be carefully reviewed by regulators and then a political decision made on who should receive it, Reuters reported.
COVID-19 vaccine likely to be available by January
“Based on the success of the trials in India and the United Kingdom, and if approvals from regulatory bodies are in place in time, then we can expect the vaccine to be available in India by January 2021, only if its proven immunogenic and efficacious,” Poonawalla said in an interview with Mint.
He said there are no immediate concerns pertaining to the Covishield vaccine and that thousands of people in India and abroad have received the shot. However, Poonawalla said that it will take two to three years to find out the long-term effects of the vaccine.
Poonawalla also said that Serum Institute is in talks with the government over the pricing of the vaccine, ensuring that it will be made available at an affordable price. “We are certain that it will be affordable for all,” he added.
SII, which is the world’s largest vaccine producer by the number of doses produced, aims to initially produce about 60-70 million doses of the Covishield vaccine.
Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial results due next month
The University of Oxford said it hopes to present the phase 3 trial results of its vaccine candidate before the end of this year, perhaps, in December. An effective vaccine is seen as a game-changer in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
“I’m optimistic that we could reach that point before the end of this year,” Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.
However, he said that it’s not clear whether the vaccine will be rolled out before Christmas, although establishing whether or not the jab worked would likely come this year, after which regulators will carefully review the data and then a political decision on who should get it first.
“Our bit – we are getting closer to but we are not there yet. There is a small chance of that being possible but I just don’t know,” Pollard added.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees, is expected to be one of the first from leading firms to be submitted for regulatory approval, along with Pfizer PFE.N and BioNTech’s 22Uay, Reuters report added. Work on the Oxford viral vector vaccine started in January.
The National Health Service (NHS) in England is gearing up to begin distributing possible COVID-19 vaccines before Christmas if a candidate becomes available by the end of the year.
Experts believe that if a safe and effective vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus could allow the world to return to some extent of normality. Worldwide, at least 1,215,957 people have now lost their lives to COVID-19.
