The fight against COVID-19 is by no means over! Almost all the people of the world have to be vaccinated to ensure that the deadly Corona Virus has been eradicated and for that, we would first need to be able to identify a complete vaccine and next, it has to be produced on a massive scale. It is already being speculated that even if we are able to identify a vaccine in the early part of next year, to be able to produce and distribute it across our country would definitely take quite some time. The CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII) - Adar Poonawalla had recently stated that it would take some time for a vaccine to be made available to all the people across our country. Now, he has given out another alarming statement!

Adar Poonawalla's latest statement reveals that it would approximately cost about Rs. 80,000 Crores for manufacturing and distributing a COVID vaccine to all the people of India. He has asked if the Indian Government is ready with these funds to procure and distribute the vaccine. Mr. Poonawalla also stated that there was a need to plan and guide vaccine manufacturers across the globe to effectively channelise procurement and distribution of a COVID vaccine, once it is identified! As of now, the SII is conducting the advanced last-stage Phase 3 trials of AZD1222, a vaccine candidate which has been jointly developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca. It is also known that the Serum Institute is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines, in terms of doses produced. 

The tweet posted by Adar Poonawalla read, "Quick question: will the Government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year? Because that is what the Ministry of Health needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle." We hear that apart from the AZD1222, Serum Institute has also been conducting trials for other vaccine candidates from various companies. The US biotech company Codagenix Inc. recently stated that SII has started manufacturing its potential COVID-19 vaccine, for which early-stage human trials are set to begin in the UK, before the end of this year. Vaccine candidates of Zydus Cadilla, Bharat Biotech, Biological-E and Gennova Biopharmaceuticals are also all set to begin human trials in India. Of the over 150 vaccine candidates being developed around the world, nearly 40 have reached the human trials stage. Stay tuned for updates...