The company has already stockpiled about 50 million doses of the vaccine.
The Serum Institute of India (SII) said on Sunday that it is ready to launch the Covishield vaccine in the country in the coming weeks after receiving approval from India’s drug regulator.
The Pune-based vaccine specialist has started a collaboration with Oxford University and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.
On Sunday, the Comptroller General of Drugs of India (DCGI) approved Covishield and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech for emergency restricted use.
“Happy New Year everyone! All the risks that @SerumInstIndia took by storing the vaccine finally paid off. COVISHIELD, India’s first COVID-19 vaccine is approved, safe, effective and ready to roll out in the coming weeks, “SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet.
The company has already stockpiled around 50 million doses of the vaccine and aims to produce up to 100 million doses per month by March next year.
The approval by the DCGI was given on the basis of the recommendations presented by a committee of experts in the field (SEC) of COVID-19 of the Central Organization for the Control of Drug Standards (CDSCO).
“After proper review, CDSCO has decided to accept the Expert Committee’s recommendations and consequently the M / s Serum and M / s Bharat Biotech vaccines are being approved for restricted use in emergency situations,” said Dr. VG Somani of DCGI at a press conference. .
This paves the way for the deployment of at least two vaccines in India in the coming days.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has already been approved by the UK government. In addition to SII and Bharat Biotech, Pfizer has also applied for DCGI’s emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccines.
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