India likely to get COVID-19 vaccine by March 2021: Serum Institute of India

PUNE: Dr Suresh Jadhav, the executive director of Serum Institute of India, has said that India might get a COVID vaccine by around March 2021 if the regulators speed up the process as various manufacturers are working on it. "India is heading fast towards vaccine development, as two manufacturers are already in phase-3 trial and one in the phase-2 trial. Besides, more players are joining the race," he said while addressing India Vaccine Accessibility e-Summit at HEAL-Thy Samvaad.

Dr Jadhav also added that the SII could manufacture around 800 million vaccine doses every year. “We can produce 700-800 million vaccine dosages every year once the things are streamlined. Although 55 per cent of the population is below 50 years of age, yet, as per the availability of vaccines, healthcare workers should get the vaccines first, then people over 60 years of age with comorbidities followed by the rest of the populace. As far as Serum Institute is concerned, we will be ready with 60-70 million dosages of vaccines by December 2020, but that will come in the market in 2021 after the clearance of licencing. Thereafter, we will produce more and more dosages by the permission of the government,” he added.