How one Indian company could be world's door to a COVID-19 vaccine

Record ID: 1553622

  • Title: How one Indian company could be world's door to a COVID-19 vaccine
  • Date: 22nd May 2020
  • Summary: PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA (RECENT - MAY 18, 2020) (REUTERS) SIGN READING (English): "Serum Institute Of India" STAFF WEARING PROTECTIVE SUITS WHILE WORKING IN LABORATORY STAFF SPEAKING VARIOUS OF LAB TECHNICIAN WORKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA, ADAR POONAWALLA, SAYING: "We are talking to parts of the government for advanced booking w
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2020 17:00
  • Keywords: COVID-19 Oxford University Pune Serum Institute of India coronavirus vaccine
  • Location: PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
  • City: PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA002CF0GQ4N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:If the world is to gain access to a vaccine for COVID-19, there's a good chance it will pass through the doors of Serum Institute of India.
    In a 150-acre (60.7 hectares) campus in the western Indian city of Pune, scientists at the Serum Institute - the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume - have been working on developing and manufacturing over half a dozen different vaccine candidates for COVID-19.
    While most of the attention regarding vaccines typically goes to the pharmaceutical developer, India quietly plays a key role in manufacturing 60%-70% of all vaccines sold globally with the Serum Institute playing a lead role, said the company's Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla.
    Poonawalla, whose father Cyrus Poonawallar founded the company in 1966, said scientists, drugmakers and manufacturers were collaborating at an unparalleled scale to spur development and availability.
    "We are all in a race to battle the disease, there is no one-upmanship here," he said on Monday (May 18).
    Serum has partnered with U.S. biotech firm Codagenix, its U.S. rival Novavax and Austria's Themis to potentially manufacture three COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are still in development.
    Another candidate in the works is the experimental vaccine developed by a team at the University of Oxford and now licensed to drugmaker AstraZeneca, with whom Serum are in talks to mass produce the vaccine, which is now in the clinical trial stage.
    Poonawalla aims to initially produce 4-5 million doses a month, beginning from June, and then gradually ramp up to 350-400 million doses a year.
    He added he had been given to understand by the development team that the trials had an 80% chance of success, given that the vaccine is based on a tried-and-tested platform.
    Based on the information currently available, Poonawalla also said he anticipated AZD1222 would be a single-dose vaccine and not require a booster dose.
    He sees AZD1222 potentially priced at about 1,000 rupees ($13) per dose in India, but expects it will be procured and distributed by governments without charge.
    The Indian government stands ready to cover the costs of trials of any vaccine in the country, said Poonawalla, adding that the government had also expressed interest in placing advance orders for a potential vaccine.
    Serum is also working on developing its own in-house vaccine options to tackle the disease, Poonawalla said.
    The Serum Institute produces more than 1.5 billion doses of vaccines every year, for everything from polio to measles.
    India recorded more than 6,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday (May 22), bringing its total to 118,447 cases with 3,583 deaths, even as it gradually begins to ease its nearly two-month long nationwide lockdown.
    There have been more than 5 million infections and 332,526 deaths reported worldwide.
    (Production: Abhirup Roy, Sunil Kataria, Vanessa Romeo, Gabriela Boccaccio)
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