Pune based Serum Institute of India has got stipulated approval from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Phase 2 and 3 human trials of Oxford developed Covid-19 vaccine. This comes after a subject expert committee recommended DCGI to approve the human clinical trial proposal of SII, after a meeting on Friday.
Nearly 1,600 adults from 17 selected sites, including AIIMS Delhi and Jodhpur, BJ Medical College in Pune, etc will participate in the trails. If the trails are successful, SII will manufacture the oxford vaccine in collaboration with the British based pharma giant AstraZeneca after the government’s approval. It has planned to manufacture around one billion doses of the vaccine over the next one year for India and other low- income and middle-income countries. The vaccine is likely to be available at a pegged price of below Rs 1,000.
Serum Institute of India chief executive Adar Poonawalla said, “We will start producing a few millions of doses at personal risk. Based on the success of the trials we are expecting it to be available by the end of this year. I believe by the first quarter of the next year it will start reaching the masses”.