Adar Poonawalla, executive director of the Serum Institute of India (SII), has warned that there will not be enough vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for everyone in the world until the end of 2024, according to a report Monday. .
The CEO of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer has estimated that the world will need about 15 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine if it is a two-dose vaccine. “It will take four to five years for everyone on this planet to get the vaccine,” Poonawalla told the Financial Times.
The Pune-based pharmaceutical firm has partnered with five international pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca and Novavax, to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and has committed to producing 1 billion doses, half of which have been committed to India.
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Poonawalla’s comments came a day after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that a vaccine against the coronavirus disease would be ready early next year. “It may be ready for the first quarter of next year,” he had said.
With the SII’s word to produce 1 billion doses, he said the commitment far exceeded the capacity of other vaccine producers. “I know the world wants to be optimistic about it … [but] I haven’t heard of anyone who comes close to that [level] right now, ”he told the business newspaper in a video call from London.
The Financial Times reported that as part of the SII agreement with AstraZeneca, the firm will aim to produce vaccine doses that cost around $ 3 for 68 countries and under its agreement with Novavax, for 92 countries.
The company may also partner with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute to make the Sputnik vaccine, according to the newspaper.
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Last week, human trials of AstraZeneca’s Oxford vaccine candidate were halted after a volunteer fell ill in the UK, after which the Serum Institute of India also paused trials as the drug controller of India issued a notice of demonstrative cause. However, trials have resumed in Britain.
After human trials of the Oxford vaccine were resumed in the UK late last week, Poonawala tweeted: “As I mentioned earlier, we should not jump to conclusions until the trials are fully concluded. The recent chain of events is a clear example of why we must not skew the process and we must respect the process to the end. “
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