World’s first COVID vaccine readied by the Researchers at Oxford University is being manufactured by Serum Institute under the trade name ‘Covishield’. The observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine on healthy Indian adults across 17 selected sites in the country.
Around 1,600 people aged above 18 years are likely to participate in this Phase-2 trials. The third and final phase of the human trials will be completed and the vaccine will be commercialized in 70 days from today, the company says. That means we should be having the vaccine from November First Week, if and only if, it is proven safe in the human trials and all the necessary permissions from the Government.
The Central Government is planning to directly procure the vaccines and is planning to immunise Indians for free. CoviShield was supposed to be priced at 1000 Rupees per shot but with 1125 crore by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Serum Institute, it was brought to around 250 Rupees per dose.
Center has sought 68 crore doses for 130 crore Indian citizens from Serum Institute by June, next year. For the remaining population, the Center is likely to place orders with ‘Covaxine’ being developed by ICMR and Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila’s ‘ZyCoV-D’ if their trials proceed successfully. Government of India earmarked 3500 Crore for this Project.
