AIIMS Delhi Director Dr. Randeep Guleria said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine being approved for use in the UK was a “big step forward” in the light of concerns about the new strain of coronavirus (Covid-19) spreading in India, and India was days away from receiving a vaccine.
This is really good news that AstraZeneca has been licensed by UK regulatory authorities for its vaccine. They have solid data and the Serum Institute of India is developing the same vaccine in India (SII). “Not only for India but for many parts of the world, this is a big step forward,” Guleria told ANI in an interview.
It is possible to store this vaccine at two to eight degrees centigrade. It would then be easy to store and carry. Instead of what is needed in the Pfizer vaccine of minus 70 degrees centigrade, storage can be achieved using a simple refrigerator,’ he said.
“As part of our compulsory immunization policy, we vaccinate infants and pregnant women. It would be easier for us to store Covid-19 vaccines by using the same platform to store vaccines at 2 to 8 degrees centigrade,” he added.
“Now, we have data, and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved based on the studies in UK, Brazil, and South Africa. There is also data from SII. I think, once the data is shown to the regulatory authority, we should get approval for the vaccine in the county within a few days. I would say days rather than weeks or months,” he said.
Meanwhile, along with global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pune-based SII has sought emergency approval for the vaccine—Covishield—developed. In what could be termed as a New Year gift, Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer, Serum Institute of India on Monday said 40-50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have already been stockpiled, adding that Covishield rollout is expected in January.
This comes in the background of the Covid-19 cases in the country that reached Wednesday’s 10.22 million mark. There are 262,272 active cases of Covid-19 and 98,341,41 individuals have recovered from the disease so far, according to the Health Ministry website. As many as 148,439 people have lost their lives because of the disease.
