In a move to provide a potential Covid-19 vaccine, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing company, the Serum Institute of India (SII), said today that it would raise an additional $ 150 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the GAVI vaccine alliance to make an additional 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine for India and other low- and middle-income countries next year.
The collaboration builds on an initial agreement signed in August by the company with the GAVI alliance and the Gates Foundation, with the total number of vaccine doses the association will cover now up to 200 million.
The expanded agreement will accelerate the manufacture and delivery of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines, which have a maximum price of $ 3 per dose or ₹250 per dose.
“GAVI, through its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide funds at risk of another $ 150 million, bringing the total financing provided through this collaboration to $ 300 million,” the company said in a statement.
“At this stage, it is important that governments, public and private sector global health and financial institutions come together to ensure that no one is left behind on the road to recovery. This partnership is in line with our efforts to bring future vaccines to the most remote part of the world by providing comprehensive immunization coverage in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic, “said Adar Poonawalla, executive director of the Serum Institute of India.
“The funding will support the IBS manufacturing at risk of candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax,” the drugmaker said. The vaccines will be available for purchase if they are fully licensed and prequalified by the World Health Organization, the company added.
Gavi COVAX AMC, which is currently seeking at least $ 2 billion in seed funding, will cover at least part of the cost of acquiring the vaccine doses. The Gavi Board has agreed on the final list of 92 countries that will be supported by Gavi COVAX AMC, the company said.
In this new collaboration, the AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, if successful, will be made available to 61 Gavi-eligible countries. The Novavax candidate, if successful, will be available to all 92 countries supported by Gavi COVAX AMC. These countries are aligned with the SII’s license agreements with the two partners.
Under the COVAX umbrella, Gavi is coordinating the COVAX facility, which provides governments the opportunity to benefit from a broad portfolio of COVID-19 candidate vaccines using a range of technology platforms, produced by more manufacturers around the world, with a greater market to provide security to the demand.
So far, 73 higher-income economies have formally committed to join the Facility, in addition to the 92 low- and middle-income economies that are eligible for Gavi COVAX AMC support.
Previously, Novavax Inc announced that it had revised its agreement with SII to produce 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
As part of the expanded agreement, Serum Institute will also manufacture the antigenic component of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
On Saturday, calling the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines a “worrying challenge,” Serum director Adar Poonawalla said the government may need to ₹80,000 crore over the next year for the distribution of the covid-19 vaccine to all people in India.
“Will the government of India have Rs 80 billion available next year? Because that’s what @MoHFW_INDIA (health ministry) needs, buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next challenge concerning that we must address, “Poonawalla tweeted.
Serum is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world by number of doses produced and sold worldwide (more than 1.3 billion doses). The vaccines manufactured by Serum are accredited by the World Health Organization in Geneva and are used in approximately 170 countries around the world.
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