As the exports would require approval from the World Health Organisation which is likely to take around a month, India will get most of Serum Institute of India’s stockpile of 40-50 million doses of Covishield vaccine initially.
The Pune-based vaccine manufacturer SII is expecting the government to approve the vaccine for emergency use so it can roll out the stock.
It’s chief executive Adar Poonawalla said that the stockpiled doses of Covishield are being augmented every week.
“We will get some good news this new year...All the data has been submitted and we must respect the process as regulators are evaluating data,” Poonawalla said, underlining approvals are expected in the UK and India almost simultaneously.
Serum Institute’s Covishield is expected to get the grant of emergency usage after the government body examining the vaccine found the result satisfactory.
“Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it will depend upon the government to decide how much they can take and how fast,” Poonwalla said.
He even disclosed the set price of the Covishield vaccine. It will be sold for Rs1000 in the private hospitals while a subsidised rate will be set for government acquisition.
SII is also into an agreement to supply 200 million doses of the anti-Covid vaccine to COVAX - the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility - of which India is also a part. “There will be plenty of vaccines to go around Covax countries. Initially, we may give most of the volumes to India. We have said we would give 50% of everything we make to India and Covax,” Poonawalla said.
It is a matter of days now when the government approves and the vaccine starts to roll-out, it seems.
