COVID Vaccine to be Available by 2024
Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India has said that the COVID-19 vaccine will not be available for the entire world before the end of 2024.
Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with UK-pharma giant AstraZeneca which is developing a Covid-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford. Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of SII said, SII will do the mass-production of the vaccine for the coronavirus. He confirmed that the vaccine will not be available for the entire world before the end of 2024. SII has also signed a deal with American biotech company Novavax, for manufacturing and commercializing once it is ready. It may also have another agreement with Russia to manufacture the Sputnik V vaccine.He said that huge medicine companies have not increased the production to vaccinate the globe quickly.
He added that if the coronavirus vaccine would require two doses, like for measles then the world will need about 15 billion doses. He said, “I know the world wants to think positive but I have not heard of any company that can produce so many vaccines right now. It will take four to five years till everyone gets the vaccine on this planet.” Poonawalla also said that when the vaccine is ready it will have to be distributed across India. When you transport vaccines to different places, the vaccines need to be kept at a low temperature during transportation. But India does not have high quality transportation service that will keep the vaccine cool. This will make it difficult to distribute vaccines across India.
