The Pune-based firm plans to manufacture and deliver up to 100 million doses of vaccine

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has tied up with Gavi, the vaccine alliance, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to promote and deliver 10 crore doses of vaccines to combat COVID19 to India and some other low income countries by 2021, just a day after its deal with American vaccine developer Novavax.

According to a report by moneycontrol.com, the Gates Foundation will provide funding of 150million dollars to GAVI, at its own risk. This funding is then supposed to be used by SII to develop potent vaccines for India and for future procurement of vaccines at low cost for low earning countries, via Gavi's COVAX AMC. The ceiling price of each dose has been set Rs. 225 ($3) per dose, by SII.

SII CEO Adar Poonawala was quoted saying, “SII has partnered with Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of future COVID vaccines for low and middle income countries in 2021.” He also stated that often the developing or the backward countries are left behind in the queue when it comes to medication or delivery of new medicines and vaccines.

On the other hand, said the report, the Drugs Controller of India has already given green signal for the second and third stage trial of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine candidate

Read the full report by moneycontrol.com