COVID-19 vaccine: Foreign envoys Serum Institute visit cancelled

New Delhi, Nov 27: The scheduled program of 100 foreign envoys visit to Pune's Serum Institute and Genova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd on Dec 4 to review the development of Covid vaccines has been cancelled.

The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation has granted licence permission for manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine for pre-clinical test, examination and analysis to seven firms, two of which are Serum Institute of India and Gennova Biopharmaceuticals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad on Saturday to review coronavirus vaccine development work at facilities there.

Modi will visit pharma major Zydus Cadila''s plant to get information about its vaccine development.

The prime minister will reach the plant, located in the Changodar industrial area, over 20 km from Ahmedabad, around 9.30 am.

Zydus Cadila had announced that the phase-I clinical trial of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D was over and it has commenced phase-II clinical trials from August.

Modi will then proceed to Pune, where he will visit the Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and the Oxford University for the vaccine.

The prime minister will reach Pune around 12.30 pm.

Modi''s visit is aimed at reviewing the status of the vaccine candidate for coronavirus infection and to know about its launch, production and distribution mechanism.

The prime minister will then fly to Hyderabad where he is scheduled to visit vaccine maker Bharat Biotech''s facility.

Modi will land at Hakimpet Air Force station and go to Bharat Biotech''s facility at Genome Valley around 50 km from Hyderabad. Bharat Biotech''s Covaxin is undergoing phase-3 trials.

The PM will fly back to Delhi in the evening after his hour-long visit to the facility.