Serum Institute: We will produce the coronavirus vaccine in three weeks
The Serum Institute announced that it plans to begin mass production of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University in two to three weeks and, if clinical trials on humans are positive, to launch it on the market in October.
Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla says his team is working closely with Dr Adrian Hill's team at Oxford University. He hopes to ramp up production to five million doses per month in the first six months and then 10 million doses per month.
He recalled that the institute had previously collaborated with Oxford University on a malaria vaccine project and could definitely say that they were "among the best scientists" in the world.
Poonawalla continued: "We hope that this vaccine will reach the market in September-October, but only if the clinical trial is successful and the vaccine has the necessary safety and its effectiveness is ensured."
According to him, clinical trials of this vaccine in India will probably begin in two to three weeks.
Poonawalla said that the company, in its responsibility to save time, accepted this risk and decided to proceed with mass production of the vaccine simultaneously with the trials, so that distribution of the vaccine could begin as soon as the trials were successful.
He said that Serum is in regular contact with the Indian Council of Medical Research to ensure the quality of the product. The company also does not intend to patent it to have exclusive rights to it so that the vaccine can be manufactured and sold not only in India but also in other parts of the world.
The CEO of the Serum Institute has called on other vaccine companies to refrain from registering exclusive patents for their products so that other manufacturers around the world can produce billions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine in a short period of time, based on commercial understandings.
Source: DW
