Adar Poonawalla CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) informed that the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the country was likely to begin by January, in line with expectations of receiving approvals for emergency-use authorization of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccinate candidate by month-end.
Speaking at The Economic Times Global Business Summit, Adar Poonawalla said he expected everyone in India to be vaccinated by October 21 and that normal life could return soon after.
“By this month-end, we might get an emergency license for the coronavirus vaccine, but the actual license for wider use might come in at a later date. But we are confident that if the regulators give a nod, India’s vaccination drive can start by January 2021,” Adar Poonawalla said.
He added that the health ministry is planning to vaccinate 20-30 per cent of India’s population to reach a critical mass.
“Once, 20% of India gets the vaccine, we can hopefully see the confidence and sentiments coming back, and by September-October next year hopefully there will be enough vaccines for everyone, and normal life can return,” Poonawalla said.
Earlier, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine can be available in the country as early as the first half of next year, AstraZeneca Country President Gagandeep Singh said on Saturday.
Speaking at the 93rd annual convention of industry chamber FICCI, he said that in the current pandemic the vaccine has to be made available broadly, equitably as well as in a timely manner.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India is conducting clinical trials of Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate Covishield in India.
We started working in April with Oxford University and currently, we are hoping to get emergency use authorization approved and that can potentially mean that we could have something which is available as early as the first half of 2021, Singh said.
In order to make the vaccine available in a timely manner the entity has signed close to 3 billion dosages supply agreements across the world encompassing close to 160 countries, he noted.
“On top of that due to the viral vector platform which is used to produce our vaccine, it can be manufactured on a relatively large scale and we are fortunate to partner with Serum which has one of the largest manufacturing capacities,” Singh said.
More importantly, this vaccine can be stored, transported, and handled at comfortable refrigerated conditions (2 to 8 degrees) which is very comfortable to handle, meaning it can be administered very rapidly across the country, he added. That’s what we are hoping to do when we get approval from the authorities in India, he added.
According to the draft standard operating procedure issued by the Health Ministry, the government is planning to provide anti-corona shots to only 100 per day at each site, unlike standard immunization drives that see hundreds of people being vaccinated in a day.
Among groups being identified for the first shots are 10 million health care providers in the government and private sectors and 20 million other front line workers, such as police and armed forces.
The government has said it will deploy its vast election machinery to deliver 60 crore doses of Covid vaccines to 30 crore Indians, including healthcare & frontline workers, priority groups above the age of 50, and those under 50 with comorbidities