India's Serum Institute, world's largest vaccine maker says 40 million doses of AstraZeneca drug produced
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The vaccine is named Covishield by the institute and is jointly developed by pharma giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford
Serum Insitute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines, on Thursday said it has already produced 40 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine is named Covishield by the institute and is jointly developed by pharma giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
It is originally named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and is one of the top contenders in the race to develop vaccines to treat Covid-19.
Serum refused to confirm whether the 40 million doses of vaccine will be supplied globally or only distributed in India, news agency Reuters reported.
The vaccine maker also said doses of Novavax vaccine, another top candidate, will be produced soon, adding that the bulk of the drug has been received from the US company.
It also said the AstraZeneca vaccine is in the most advanced stage of human testing in India, adding that the company along with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will pursue "early availability" of the doses in India.
India also has at least two indigenously developed vaccine candidates, while Dr Reddy's Labs is conducting a trial for Russia's vaccine candidate.
The development came as coronavirus infections in India, the world's second-worst, reached 8.68 million on Thursday and the death toll rose over 128,000.