The COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic has been ravaging the world at its peak for over seven months now and teams of researchers and scientists are racing against time to identify a vaccine or a cure for this deadly virus! There are over 250 different vaccines which are in various stages of trial across the world but very few are in the most advanced stages of human trials and close to reaching the production stage! Now, we infer from a report by the international news agency Reuters that Novavax Inc has entered into a supply and license deal with the Serum Institute of India for the commercialisation and development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate!

As per this deal, Serum Institute of India will have the exclusive rights for manufacturing and selling the vaccine in India. This deal is exclusive for Serum Institute throughout India and it has also obtained non-exclusive rights for the vaccine candidate during the 'Pandemic period' in developing countries, except those designated by the World Bank as upper-middle or high-income nations! This means good news for India as we would get the vaccine at the earliest, as soon as it is cleared for use by the authorised bodies. A couple of days back, Novavax announced that their vaccine candidate had shown a high level of antobodies against the novel corona virus in the preliminary stages of the clinical trials. The report also states that Novavax would start their Phase-3 trials on a larger scale with more volunteers, as early as September itself! 

The Corona Virus has already infected nearly 19 million people worldwide, with the death toll climbing over 7 lakhs! This deal between Novavax and Serum Institute of India was reportedly signed on July 30, according to an SEC filing by the US firm Novavax Inc! The Donald Trump administration had also provided a $1.6 billion aid to Novavax for the trial and production expenses for its vaccine candidate. A total of 106 volunteers had participated in the initial clinical trials and the results showed that those injected with the vaccine developed twice the levels of antibodies as those who normally recovered from the Corona Virus. Stay tuned for further updates...