Oxford Covid Vaccine update: This may be the first shot available for Indians

New Delhi, Aug 19: India looks for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate which is likely to be the first shot available for Indians by the end of 2020.

Two indigenously developed vaccine candidates are likely to be launched with a gap of few weeks if cleared in trials, said a report in the Times of India. The vaccine developed by the universities ahead of the two local vaccines that have also entered the human clinical trials, the report also said.

The Serum Institute of India, which is Pune based is a manufacturing partner of AstraZeneca for manufacturing the potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the Oxford University. SII has been permitted to conduct advanced human clinical trials of the vaccine in India. It has started Phase 2 and 3 trials, the report also said.

On the other hand, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Zydus Cadila's Zycov D are both in early phases of human clinical trials. The trials by SII are the largest and is being conducted with around 1,600 people above the age of 18 in across 17 selected sites across the country

SII plans to make 100 million doses of the vaccine every month and 400 million doses of the Oxford Vaccine by the end of 2020. The vaccine has received a funding of 150 million USD from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.