Serum Institute of India (SII) expects to launch Covovax, the Covid vaccine developed by American vaccinemaker Novavax, by August, mentioned CEO Adar Poonawalla on Wednesday. The Pune-headquartered firm will start stockpiling this vaccine, which it should check on the Indian inhabitants in a bridging examine, subsequent month.
“The good news is that we’re going to start stockpiling the product starting in the month of April, so that…we have a huge stockpile which we can then distribute the minute we’re licenced,” he mentioned throughout the Bloomberg Equity Summit. However, it has grow to be troublesome for corporations to succeed in their objective of supplying 2 billion doses by the top of the 12 months to COVAX — the worldwide Covid-19 vaccine facility beneath GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance, CEPI and WHO.
“I think (meeting the goal by the) end of this year will probably be challenging….there are a lot of manufacturers who haven’t been able to supply to their commitments and timelines, including Serum Institute, to a certain extent,” mentioned Poonawalla. It would take one other 3-4 months for COVAX to obtain the required doses from completely different producers “because of vaccine nationalism,” in accordance with him.
