Good news: Serum Institute to produce 100 million extra doses of COVID-19 vaccine for India

New Delhi: Serum Institute of India (SII) said Tuesday it along with Gavi and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will manufacture an additional up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for India and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The latest collaboration between the partners brings the total number of vaccine doses to be covered to an aggregate of up to 200 million doses, Serum Institute said in a statement.

In August, SII had entered into a new partnership with international vaccine alliance Gavi and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII to help it increase manufacturing capacity now, so that once a vaccine gets regulatory approval and WHO Prequalification, doses can be distributed at scale to LMICs, it added. The doses will be distributed as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early as the first half of 2021, it said.

“The collaboration further bolsters up our fight against COVID-19. Through the avid support of Gavi and the Bill and 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,” SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said.

“At this stage, it is important for governments, global health and financial institutions in the public and private sector to come together in ensuring that no one is left behind in the road to recovery. This association is in line with our efforts to see that the future vaccines reach the remotest part of the world providing full immunization coverage in a bid to contain the spread of the pandemic,” Poonawalla added.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide funding of a further USD 150 million to Gavi, bringing the total funding provided through this collaboration to USD 300 million.

This will be used to support the SII to manufacture potential vaccine candidates, and for future procurement of vaccines for India and low- and middle-income countries.

The funding will help accelerate the manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines licensed from ‘’AstraZeneca and ‘Novavax’, which will be available for procurement if they are successful in attaining full licensure and WHO Prequalification.

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