PM Modi to visit Serum Institute in Pune to take stock of Covishield vaccine development

New Delhi, Nov 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday (November 28) visit Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune to review the work on the development of 'Covishield' vaccine which is being developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in collaboration with UK's Oxford University.

It can be seen that the SII is partnered with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca for the manufacturing and distribution of its COVID vaccine candidate 'Covishield' in India.

Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurav Rao has confirmed that PM Modi will be visiting SII on November 28.

Earlier, several reports claimed that vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca has shown 70 per cent efficiency. Oxford-AstraZeneca said that the vaccine could be around 90 per cent effective under "one dosing regimen".

According to a press release by the Oxford University, "Phase 3 interim analysis including 131 Covid-19 cases indicates that the vaccine is 70.4 per cent effective when combining data from two dosing regimens".

"In the two different dose regimens, vaccine efficacy was 90 per cent in one, and 62 per cent in the other," the release on interim trial data from Phase III trials further said.

"Early indication that vaccine could reduce virus transmission from an observed reduction in asymptomatic infections," it added.

However, Oxford and AstraZeneca are waiting for the results of phase III trials of their coronavirus vaccine candidate 'Covishield' on thousands of people around the world to show whether their vaccine is safe and effective.