Serum Institute will deliver 10 crores more doses of COVID vaccine to India

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced an expansion of its association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and vaccine alliance GAVI to deliver an additional 10 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to India, as well as other low- and middle-income countries.

In August, the SII entered into a partnership with Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce 100 million doses for India and LMICs.

The collaboration builds upon an initial agreement signed in August by the company with the GAVI Alliance and the Gates Foundation, with the total number of vaccine doses to be covered by the partnership now up to 200 million.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, said, "The collaboration further bolsters up our fight against COVID-19! Through the avid support of Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we will now manufacture and deliver up to an additional 100 million doses of immunogenic and safe-proven future COVID-19 vaccines to India and low- and middle-income countries in 2021."

The vaccines will have a ceiling price of US$3 per dose (Rs 221.43), a price enabled by investments made by partners such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Gates Foundation and SII.

The Gavi COVAX AMC, which is currently seeking at least US$2 billion in initial seed funding, will meet at least part of the cost of procurement for the vaccine doses. The Gavi Board has agreed upon the final list of 92 countries that will be supported by the Gavi COVAX AMC.