Pune based Serum Institute of India has entered into a new landmark partnership with Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for India and low- and middle-income countries. This was stated in a press release issued by Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute.
The press release says that the collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII to help them increase manufacturing capacity now so that, once a vaccine gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, doses can be produced at scale for distribution to India and LMIC as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early as the first half of 2021.
The funding will support at-risk manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax, which will be available for procurement if they are successful in attaining full licensure and WHO Prequalification.
