British-Swedish pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca has tied up with Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), along with other world-wide vaccine manufacturers, to produce the vaccine currently under trial at the University of Oxford. The university said, “Our vaccine work is progressing quickly.” Oxford recently announced the start of a Phase II/III trial of the vaccine in about 10,000 adult volunteers with other late-stage trials due to begin in multiple countries.
The agreements include a $750 million pact with the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and vaccine alliance Gavi, to support the manufacturing, procurement, and distribution of 300 million doses of the vaccine. Delivery is expected to begin by the end of the year.
“In addition, the university and industry partnership reached a licensing agreement with SII to supply one billion doses for low-and-middle-income countries, with a commitment to provide 400 million before the end of 2020”, Oxford said. SII chief executive officer, Adar Poonawalla, said, “Serum Institute of India is delighted to partner with AstraZeneca in bringing this vaccine to India as well as low-and-middle-income countries”.
He added, “Over the past 50 years SII has built significant capability in vaccine manufacturing and supply globally. We will work closely with AstraZeneca to ensure fair and equitable distribution of the vaccine in these countries.” AstraZeneca is building a number of supply chains in parallel across the world to support global access at no profit during the pandemic and has so far secured manufacturing capacity for two billion doses of the vaccine.
