BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday urged the Serum Institute of India (SII) to keep Odisha as a priority state for COVID-19 vaccination once necessary clearances are obtained.
Speaking to Serum Institute’s CEO Adar Poonawalla through video conferencing on the progress of a COVID-19 vaccine, Naveen congratulated him for the recent promising results published in international journal Lancet.
Serum Institute of India has collaborated with Oxford University to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and its subsequent human trials. The institute plans to start trials of the vaccine on around 5,000 volunteers in the country in August after it gets necessary approvals.
Naveen applauded the philanthropic activities carried out by Poonawalla and its foresight in tying up with various research institutions across the globe to develop the vaccine. He said the state government will be in touch with SII for this purpose.
Poonawalla appreciated the Chief Minister for approaching the institute to ascertain the progress of the vaccine and keeping track of the test results.
He said the vaccine developed by Oxford University has shown promising results in the first phase trial. The next phase trial will start in mid-August in India and the vaccine will be ready by October-November this year, he said.
Serum Institute and the state government will remain in touch with each other and carry forward the collaboration once the vaccines are cleared and ready, Poonawalla added.
The vaccine under development will undergo a three-phase trial in the country before the antidote is introduced for mass vaccination.
AstraZeneca, the multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company that has partnered with Oxford University to develop the vaccine, plans to manufacture up to seven crore doses of the vaccine per month up to October and take it up to 10 crore doses per month by December.