‘Compliment the team’: PM visits Ahmedabad COVID vaccine facility

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived at Ahmedabad’s Zydus Cadila facility to kick off his three-city visit to take stock of the COVID-19 vaccines being produced in India.

The PM is also scheduled to visit Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad and the Serum Institute of India in Pune before returning to Delhi in the evening.

After the Ahmedabad visit, he took to Twitter to say that the Centre is working to support the company’s efforts.

Zydus Cadila is developing its COVID-19 vaccine at Vaccine Technology Centre, located at its Changodar park.

The vaccine manufacturer will reportedly be applying for phase 3 of clinical trials in December. It is expected to launch the vaccine in the market by April 2021.

Ahead of the visit, PM Modi’s office had on Friday tweeted: “As India enters a decisive phase of the fight against COVID-19, PM @narendramodi’s visit to these facilities & discussions with the scientists will help him get a first hand perspective of the preparations, challenges & roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens.”

Bharat Biotech’s Facility in Hyderabad

PM Modi will be visiting vaccine maker Bharat Biotech's facility in Hyderabad’s Genome Valley, where work is underway on Covaxin, India's first indigenous vaccine for coronavirus being developed by the company in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Serum Institute of India

PM Modi will also visit the Serum Institute of India in Pune. The company is the Indian partner that is producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine that’s expected to be ready by around April 2021.

The vaccine, which has been dubbed Covishield in India, is especially being favoured as it is priced lower than those being developed by Moderna and Pfizer and does not require extreme low temperatures for storage.

The COVID-19 vaccine, being jointly developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca, was recently announced to have 70 percent efficacy after a large-scale trial.