New Delhi: Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Thursday informed that SII has spent over Rs 10,000 crore on the production and distribution of Covishield vaccine. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Poonawala also added that ‘Covovax’ was chosen for multiple reasons for children and is likely to be approved by February next year. Earlier, he had said that the clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine Covovax have begun in India and the company hopes to launch it by September this year.
“We bet on the partnership we had with AstraZeneca. We had absolutely no idea which vaccine would work. We have seen scale-up issues with other manufacturers. It has worked out well for us with AstraZeneca-Oxford. We are talking to a few companies for fill and finish. Fill-finish can be done with several partners. Covovax could be filled at Biocon or our facility,” Poonawala said to News18.
In August 2020, the US-based vaccine maker Novavax, Inc had announced a licence agreement with SII for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and India
The development and commercialisation pact between Novavax and SII excludes major upper-middle and high-income countries, for which Novavax continues to retain rights
In January this year, Poonawalla had said SII expected to launch Covovax by June 2021. “Our partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with @Novavax?has also published excellent efficacy results. We have also applied to start trials in India. Hope to launch #COVOVAX by June 2021!”, Poonawalla had said in a tweet
SII is already supplying?AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, in India and to other countries across the world.
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