Serum Institute to apply for emergency use of Covid vaccine in next 2 weeks

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) would apply to the Indian drug regulator within the next two weeks for emergency-use authorisation of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said on Saturday after Prime Minister PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the Serum plant.

"As of now, we don't have anything in writing with the Government of India on how many doses they would purchase, but the indication is that 300-400 million doses might be procured by July 2021," Poonawalla told reporters. "We are in the process of applying in the next two weeks for emergency-use authorisation."

The SII CEO said the safety and efficacy of the vaccine met the expectations and the trials at the moment were more than enough for the efficacy. He added that they might later look at doing more trials on people aged under 18 years.