Daily News Capsule

AstraZeneca, the British- Swedish pharma giant, and UK pharma giant  Novavax open up that they are ready to heighten the production of covid vaccine by engaging with the Serum Institute of India. 

SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume is located in the Pune city of Maharashtra. It manufactures the corona vaccines brought by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, locally called Covidshied.

Covidshield was indeed emergency use indexed by the world health organization this month. WHO allowed the use of Covidshield in low-income countries across the world.   

“Ruud Dobber, the president of AstraZeneca’s pharmaceuticals business, said the with our partner, the serum institute of India, we are planning to supply over 300 million vaccines to about 145 countries through COVAX in the beginning phase of 2021 according to our global and equitable access pledge”    

Of these the majority of the vaccines will be provided to the low and middle-income countries, Dobber told the members of the US House Energy and Commerce committee’s oversight and investigation subcommittee during a congressional hearing on the pathway to protection: increasing the distribution of covid vaccines. On Tuesday.

The purpose of the hearing was to detect the efforts and analysis of manufacturers to scale up the production of corona vaccines in the US. 

The global access program is run by Gavi, the vaccine alliance, and WHO in partnership with the developing and developed countries.

Dobber said, the company’s agreement with the US government covers the development and supply of 300 million doses of its vaccine, should it receive approval. The cost of the doses and the dose deal will provide no profits to AstraZeneca.  

Its vaccine has received authorization in more than 50 countries and WHO listed the vaccine for emergency use against coronavirus, he told the lawmaker.

 Studies conducted today indicated our vaccine is well tolerated and effective, and just this week we were encouraged to see the first real-world from over 5.4 million subjects in Scotland demonstrating a risk of reduction of covid-19 related hospitalization by 94% after the first dose of our vaccine, he declared. 

The executive president of Novavax also gave a similar assurance about the vaccine to the congressional members. 

“Scale-up has not begun yet in large scale but we do have a global capacity both with our existing Novovax facilities in the US, our partners in India’s serum institute, and we believe that we could scale up that new strain very quickly,” Trizinno said in a response to a question.  

Covidshield is less expensive than the many other vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. Also, it doesn’t have to be stored in low temperatures and make it suitable for use in various countries that lack the proper and appropriate storage conditions. 

Throughout the hearing, congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a senior deputy whip and chair of the consumer protection and commerce subcommittees said that about 100 countries, directed by India and South Africa, have appealed to WHO to put a halt on trade-related intellectual property standards.  

In other words, to have a waiver, that would allow countries around the world, poor and middle-income countries, to be able to manufacture their own vaccines. And it seems to me that is something that we should do so we have plenty for us and plenty of rest of the world.” Schakowsky said.

In the written testimony triazine said once of all his capacity comes to align globally, which it expects to happen in the midpoint of this year. Novovax will have a global capacity to produce approximately two billion doses per day, roughly 150 million doses per month.

“This includes all our partners, including the serum institute of India. During the pandemic, we believe that the federal government and state and local jurisdictions are in the best position to determine how doses are distributed and allocated.  We will work with the government leaders to ensure that those who need a vaccine get it,” he said.  

Trizzino said Novavax is committed to reasonable pricing, equitable distribution and allocation, and expansive access worldwide, which is what will be required to fully control the pandemic. 

“To that end, we have built a strong partnership with the serum institute of India,” whereby they will deliver significant numbers of vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries throughout the world, he said.