New Delhi: Indian pharmaceutical giant Serum Institute of India (SII) on Sunday issued a statement to clarify that presently, the government has granted them permission to only manufacture the vaccine and stockpile it for future use.
The COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covidshield’ has been developed by the University of Oxford and Astra Zeneca. British-Swedish firm Astra Zeneca partnered with the Serum Institute of India to manufacture the vaccine for India and low and-middle income countries.
Meanwhile, the clarification comes a day after several reports claimed that Covidshield will be commercialised in 73 days.
“Serum Institute of India clarifies that the current claims over COVISHIELD’s availability, in the media are completely false and conjectural. Presently, the government has granted us permission to only manufacture it and stockpile it for future use,” the statement read.
The vaccine will be commercialised once the trials are proven successful and all the requisite regulatory approvals are in place. The phase-3 trials for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are still underway. And only once the vaccine is proven immunogenic and efficacious, SII will confirm its availability, officially,” the statement further read.
