Serum Institute of India to manufacture up to 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine priced at Rs 225

The Serum Institute of India(SII) on Friday announced it would receive a funding of $150 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Gavi vaccine alliance to produce 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine for India as well as other low and middle-income countries (LMICs).The vaccine is scheduled to be launched as early as 2021.

“The collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII to help them increase manufacturing capacity now so that, once a vaccine, or vaccines, gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, doses can be produced at scale for distribution to India and LMICs as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early as the first half of 2021,” SII said in a statement. It also said that the vaccine will be availble at an affordable price of $3 (Rs 225) per dose.

The candidate vaccines, including those from AstraZeneca and Novavax, will be made available in 92 countries in GAVI's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the company said in a statement.

GaVI, supported by the Gates Foundation, is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to GAVI, which will be used to manufacture covid vaccine by SII, the statement said.

"In an attempt to make our fight against covid-19 stronger and all-embracing; SII has partnered with Gavi and the Bill & Malinda Foundation to advance the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million dosed of future Covid vaccines for India and low-and-middle-income countries in 2021," Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said.

Covax aims to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccines once it gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification by the end of 2021.