Coronavirus Vaccine: Serum Institute said it will produce an additional 100 million doses of COVID vaccine
Bangalore:
Serum Institute of India will produce up to 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for the poorest countries, including India, next year as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the GAVI vaccine alliance have doubled their funding, the company said. on Tuesday.
The additional funds will help Serum drive the manufacture of candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc, for delivery under the COVAX scheme beginning in the first half of 2021.
The collaboration leads to an initial agreement signed in August by Serum, GAVI and the Gates Foundation for 100 million doses at a maximum price of $ 3 each.
Total funding provided is now $ 300 million, and the expanded collaboration also has an option for the provision of additional doses as needed.
The so-called COVAX plan, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and GAVI, aims to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccines worldwide by the end of 2021. More than 150 countries have joined the plan, although China and the United States have not signed up.
The global COVID-19 death toll surpassed one million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally.
India, which leads the world in the daily average number of new infections reported, saw its coronavirus case count rise to 6.15 million as of Tuesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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