NEW DELHI, Nov 26, 2020 (BSS) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Saturday to review Covid-19 vaccine production and proposed distribution plan.
Serum Institute of India has been partnering with British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca and the Oxford University to produce COVID-19 vaccine, which shows “90 percent efficacy rate in 3rd trial” raising hope for its arrival in India by the end of December.
AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine is seen as one of the most advanced candidates in the race of vaccine production against the novel coronavirus that infected more than 59,816,510 people and killed 14,10,378 people worldwide so far.
“The PM’s visit will be aimed at reviewing the status of the vaccine candidate for coronavirus infection and to know about its launch, production and distribution mechanisms,” media reports said quoting official sources today.
Modi’s visit will precede the arrival of the envoys of foreign missions in India at Serum Institute on December 4. The envoys will oversee the production of the Covid-19 vaccine and the company’s distribution plan, once it gets a nod from the regulators for use.
“The-familiarisation-visit of foreign envoys based in Delhi will be for one day and in two groups,” according to the Indian Ministry of external Affairs.
The ambassadors will visit SII in the morning and spend around three hours visiting facilities at the company’s Hadapsar campus.
By afternoon, they will arrive at Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited, which is also working on the production of another Covid-19 vaccine, at its Hinjewadi campus, before heading back to Delhi.
However, Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India on November 5 to purchase 30 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca.
According to the deal, the Serum Institute will provide 30 million doses vaccine in the first phase whenever it will be ready.
Health Minister Zahid Malik told recently that Bangladesh will purchase five million doses of vaccine per month through the country’s drug maker, Beximco Pharmaceuticals to fight against coronavirus.
According to sources, Bangladesh was in talks with development partners, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to secure funds for the vaccine.